Pokemon Revolution
by Farla
Summary: Eon, an experimental pokemon, decides to wage war against humans. Sides are chosen, blood is shed, and things will never be the same. Chapter Seventeen: Base Defence.
1. And So It Begins

A few things before we begin:

This is an older story that was originally started back in 2002 and finished around a year later. This means that although I will be happy to read any criticism you have – and no, I'm not being sarcastic – it's likely something I'm already aware of, so you should keep that in mind when deciding to spend the time on it. I'd also be _more_ happy to read your criticism on something current I'm writing.

And just so we're clear, because I know we're on the fourth generation and some people get confused over how long ago things were, Ruby and Sapphire were released in Japan near the end of 2002, and not in America until 2003, and Diamond and Pearl were released in Japan late 2006 and not in America until 2007, which is to say, this story was written using only the first 251 pokemon and takes place within Kanto and Johto. In other words, no, Kyogre and Darkrai will not be appearing. Please note the past tense of "was written" - there is simply no room in the story for them, as the major players and minor characters of the story already exist and the battles already have their locations. Regardless of how much you like them, I'm of the opinion the story is not improved if I go through and replace a particular totodile character with a mudkip.

Also, for those of you who have already read the story, please try to avoid posting spoilers for later chapters in your reviews, as not everyone has. If you'd like to ask me something regarding later chapters, please email me and I'll be happy to answer. Non-spoiler questions may also be addressed to my forum if you'd prefer.

This story is co-written with Charles Rocketboy (user ID 8928, or ~charlesrocketboy). Up until Chapter 29, he writes the odd numbered chapters and I write the even ones. So Chapters 1,3,5,7,9 and so forth are his, while 2,4,6,8,10 and so forth are mine.

Thanks everyone, and enjoy the story.

* * *

"You may strip Germany of her colonies, reduce her armaments to a mere police force and her navy to that of a fifth-rate power; all the same, in the end if she feels she has been unjustly treated she will find means of EXACTING RETRIBUTION ON HER CONQUERORS."

David Lloyd George, 1919

"And I will kill them slowly, one by one. Because they made me what I am. They wrote my destiny in stone, they chose my path, in a language they did not know, simply guessing what would happen. And they wrote that I would become what I am, and I would come for them."

Eon

-

First, the news:

THE FUCHSIA POST

**20 KILLED IN LABORATORY HORROR**

Silph Corporation's Fuchsia laboratory was destroyed last night by unknown attackers. The laboratory was researching ways of improving eevee evolutions and creating new ones, under guidance of the renowned Professor Yew. There was no apparent motive for the attack, which left no survivors and is estimated to have been a coordinated assault by high-level pokemon. Human bodies were mutilated, making it impossible to identify them. The experimental pokemon have not been found, suggesting that this could be the work of Team Rocket...

The following reports all occurred over a two month period after the previous, with stories like them increasing exponentially:

Cerulean City was rocked to its foundations after the discovery of the body of a pokemon trainer, beaten to a bloody pulp and with all 6 of his pokeballs empty! This is most likely the work of Team Rocket, who have been escalating their efforts in destroying society as of late...

…

A small group of novice trainers has gone missing whilst travelling through Viridian Forest…

…

In a shocking display of pokemon brutality, a raichu gutted its trainer Daniel Philips in broad daylight. Police have pointed to possible Team Rocket agents as the cause of this, the fifth attack in three days in Violet City which bears resemblance to similar incidences that have occurred recently throughout Kanto…

* * *

It is always dark in the forests near Violet City. Normally, this would not bother Ephram, but after all the recent murders...

No, he reasons. He is a grass trainer and the proud owner of 7 Badges. He can take anything thrown at him. So he isn't bothered by the sounds of pokemon in the background- why should he? They are only pokemon, and there aren't many strong species in this forest anyway. All he has to worry about is Team Rocket, and what are they against his pokemon?

Then comes the screech of a noctowl. And it is answered by another, and another, and another, the forest filling with the banshee screams. Ephram shivers and looks around, worried. This isn't normal behaviour, this is like communication...

_They couldn't be Rocket trained, could they! Assassin noctowl! No, that's ridicu-_

He looks behind him, and stares in bewilderment. A multitude of weedle are blocking the way he came- weedle are surrounding him, preventing him from moving at all. And they look **angry**. He doesn't understand this. Weedle don't do this. Weedle can't _be _angry. What Rocket trick is this! _What's going on?_

And then a strange creature drops down from the trees and lands beside him. It is some sort of eevee evolution, but not one he recognises. He has also never seen that look of raw hatred in the eyes of a pokemon before…

"Go Skiploom!"he screams, wanting for nothing more than to send this monster away.

The little creature leaps out of its pokeball and eyes the odd eevee creature. It nods, as if the thing is familiar to it. And then it turns round and fires Razor Leaf at Ephram.

He dies in seconds, blood matting the grass.

Skiploom laughs giddily, staring at what she's done. {I-I did it! I finally did it!}

~Yes,~ says Eon. She smiles happily. ~This is just the beginning, my friends.~ Her voice drops to a whisper. ~We are growing. Day by day, our army gains new pokemon. Wild, trained, caged… It doesn't matter. They all flock to our cause, ready to commit their lives to the war for freedom. We are strong. And soon we will be strong enough **to overthrow our oppressors forever**!~

And the forest is alive with cheers.


	2. Declaration of War

It is a beautiful day. The sun smiles down over the grass field in the Pokemon League Stadium. The surrounding audience is hushed, waiting to see what shall happen.

In the forest surrounding the stadium, the pokemon are also hushed, for they too are waiting.

"Return, Exeggutor!" calls one of the two trainers, withdrawing the battered plant pokemon. Both he and his opponent are now down to their last pokemon. Of course, it's almost certain what the outcome with be. The other's last pokemon, a sturdy steelix, is tired from the exeggutor. His trainer, Ruby, knows this, and the fact that trainers almost always save their strongest for last.

The trainer known as Mandy the Astounding, the favorite of the crowd, is clearly confident. He has already made up his mind that this, his last three-on-three battle, would be something to remember. He had explained it to his pokemon very carefully, knowing that pokemon were not exactly intelligent. Still, he had faith that his last pokemon would be able to pull this off. It was what they existed for, after all.

The crowd, though seemingly rapt with curiosity, know that Mandy will win. They watch with well-concealed bloodlust, waiting for their favorite to emerge victorious. He knows what they are expecting, and is determined to do even better.

In the stands sits a well-known trainer with his two friends. Ash watches the match with annoyance. He didn't want that foolish excuse for a trainer to win. Mandy cared more about magic tricks than pokemon.

"Go, Golbat!" yells Mandy. "Destroy that weak little worm!"

The golbat is larger then normal, an older pokemon. Had anyone been paying close enough attention, they might realized that most normal golbat had evolved in a crobat by then. But it wasn't particularly important, so who would?

The battle rages. Although truly, to call it a battle might be misleading. In the wild, as tired as the steelix is, in surroundings as unfavorable as these, he would have dug underground to escape. Here those options are no longer available.

The steelix tries valiantly to fight back, but it is no good. Normally, one would think the flier had the disadvantage, but his rock attacks are as good as worthless on the soft turf, and his ground attacks, even if not weakened by the plant roots impaling the dirt, cannot hit a flying foe. The golbat can fly out of reach for his normal and steel moves, so he only gets a chance to attack when the golbat attacks. Even if he was not exhausted, this match would be impossible. There is a reason his kind do not live in the soft grassland. He is nearly defenseless against a flying pokemon in this situation.

As the match begins to wind down, the steelix realizes something is amiss. The golbat is up to something. The strong flier is not hitting as hard as a creature of that level should. He is being worn down, bit by bit, slowly.

Pokemon do fight in the wild, and, although it is so rare that it is almost unknown, they do not always retreat from a losing battle. The steelix begins to understand what is about to occur. He cannot escape, and he cannot win. So he cannot avoid what will happen.

The golbat judges that the steelix is hovering at the edge of exhaustion, nearly fainted. If the golbat does not hurry, the steelix will be pronounced unable to battle and the match ended. If that happens, Mandy will be furious. It is time.

Ruby and the audience have not figured out what will happen. If they had, only Ruby would have cared.

The golbat then lunges for one last attack, one that would to more then enough. Golbat did not normally learn it, so Mandy would simply say he had no idea what happened. He was to go in for a leach life attack, and then use flamethrower. The steelix is no fool. He can see the beginnings of embers in the golbat's huge mouth. But even if one of the spectators could see, they would not look close enough, feeling confident that a golbat cannot use that attack.

The golbat's mouth opens so wide it would seem as if the bat wished to swallow the steel snake alive. The steelix watches as death swoops down until it is only inches away, too tired to save himself. As the jaws get ready to snap shut-

A blurred, four-legged creature slams into the golbat, knocking it aside. The flamethrower soars over the steel pokemon. Standing proudly before the assembled humans was a…

The stadium resonates with the sound as the many trainers move as one, opening their pokedex. In almost perfect unison, the pokedexes give that rare phrase. "No available data" they say in that strange, half-monotone voice.

A ripple passes over the crowd. Who will be the first to catch this new creature?

The pokemon in question stands calmly, as if she is unaware of the fact that nearly all of the hundreds assembled are pokemon trainers, most brought up to the chant of 'gotta catch 'em all'.

Her body is the color of an espeon, though the shape was closer to vaporeon. Golden rings encircle her ears and tail, and lie on her forehead and legs. In the center of the ring on her forehead is a strange gem, a bit like an espeon's save that color appears to change as the light hits it. Her back has small gray spikes in it, like a jolteon's but the wrong color and far too small. Her tail is that of an umbreon's. A small mane like a flareon's surrounds her neck. As the trainers watch, the most observant of them notice she seems to grow slightly redder.

~ I am Eon, your creation ~ says the psychic voice of the creature. ~ I was just another stepping stone on the path to knowledge for you. Just like the many hundreds of others your kind experimented on. There is only one difference. Unlike the others, ~ she hisses. ~ I lived. ~

Ruby realizes suddenly that she should probably withdraw her nearly fainted steelix. Without taking her eyes off the strange creature, she reaches for steelix's pokeball.

A sharp pain in her hand forces her to look down. A growling, vaguely foxlike creature has intercepted her hand and his teeth sink into her flesh. Unlike Eon, this one looks more as if someone had chopped up vaporeon, jolteon and flareon, then picked a random assortment to put together. He has the tail of a vaporeon, and the red body of a flareon, with the legs and spikes of a jolteon. His head is perhaps the most frightening part of all. The upper left side was that of a vaporeon, and the upper right side was that of a flareon. The lower third was a jolteon.

Screaming, Ruby tries to yank her hand free. Distracted as she is, she doesn't notice two other creatures who are sitting side by side. A light gray umbreon is lifting her three pokeballs and pokedex away. Next to her, a jet-black espeon is watching the humans.

When the pokeballs are safe next to them, the light-colored umbreon noses the ball, causing it to withdraw the steelix.

The creature lets go of Ruby's hand with a short bark of "Mix!" and leaps back down onto the field.

Mandy doesn't notice what is happening to Ruby. He is watching the creature that called itself eon, who is pointedly ignoring him. "Ultra ball, go!"

The pokeball seemed to hit an invisible wall before exploding. Eon casts a glance to a shadowy corner. Another creature walks out of hiding to stand between Eon and Mandy. He barks at the trainer. "Cin eon cin cinc!" {You can't catch us!}

This new pokemon has a yellow body, wrapped in green, sparking tendrils. The top half of his head is green and the bottom half looks a bit like an eevee but not quite. His tail is like a flareon's, with leaves and vines mixed into the fur, and his legs are those of a vaporeon.

Only a few moments have passed. But that is more then long enough for Ash, who is already racing down the steps toward the strange, unknown pokemon, and is nearly at the bottom. And he is far from the only one to do so.

Eon turns toward the golbat. ~ Would you rather kill innocent pokemon as a mindless weapon? Or kill those who truly deserve it? ~

The golbat laughs. Then he lunges for his trainer. Golbat's mouth wasn't quite large enough to fit his former master, but the golbat made admirable efforts despite this. After a bit of struggling, Mandy's body is bitten in two.

The stadium is shocked, silent, the rushing trainers paused. Eon faces them and laughs softly. She looks at the rows of cameras. ~ Heed my words, pokemon of the world. We are stronger. We are smarter. We are faster. We are **better** in every sense then the humans. Why should **we** serve **them**? The time is NOW! ~ she says, throwing her head back in a howl. ~ We are many and we shall make them no more then a memory. This is the end of all of them! ~

~ And for a parting gift, as proof of my power- ~ Eon unleashes a fire blast attack on one side of the stands. The five assembled pokemon vanish, leaving the remainder of the audience to gape in astonishment and horror.


	3. Ripples

Chapter 3

The entire Pokemon League festivities were being suspended for a week in the wake of the massacre. Police and League officials wanted to be sure that Eon wouldn't attack again, and to find out who was behind this (obviously Team Rocket). In the meantime, Mandy's killer was swiftly executed, and spectators and trainers were urged to remain at Indigo Plateau until the games restarted. The League swiftly tried to downplay the incident in the press and make everyone forget about it.

It didn't work.

* * *

"What the bloody hell was that about?!"

Meowth looked up at James. "How should _I_ know? I just sat here an' saw da same thing youse did."

Jessie folded her arms and said, "It looked political. She's an activist-"

"Well no shit."

"Makes sense," said James, ignoring Meowth. "Blowing things up is a time-honoured way of making people listen to you." He looked over his shoulder, at the news teams meeting with the League officials, getting their stories all safe for the evening news, so everybody could forget of the little declaration of genocide. "She was talking about a revolution against humanity," he muttered. "About killing the 'oppressors'. Nothing about that gives me the warm fuzzies".

Meowth shivered. He was a loyal member of Team Rocket, and had been for years. He was most likely known to Eon. Known as an oppressor. And after what she'd done to Mandy...

_I'm gonna die._

* * *

He lives in a cave, far away from Kanto. He has furnished it well, stocking it with the most advanced genetic engineering equipment and computer systems known to man. Works of art adorn his rooms, and musical works of Pachbel plays in the background. Mewtwo believes that living is not enough- one must live in style, he says. As for the money needed for such accommodations- well, he may be living far from the eyes of man, but this has never stopped him from using his high intelligence to play the stock market.

For months now, this has been the only interaction he has with the outside world. He has not merely furnished his home because it looks good - he has deliberately taken all that is good about the world and hidden it away, so it can never be corrupted. He has become sickened by the hypocrisy and dullness of the outside world, the mental oppression caused by the Pokemon League.

But now he sips his wine and sits in a luxurious leather chair, watching the television play. He has recorded Eon's appearance on tape, and replays it again and again.

~ Interesting. Another like me? She bears watching. She is filled with passion for something other than League dogma, and that is refreshing. I wonder how well received her message will be by the Pokemon world? It may be huge. And maybe I will come out of hiding and thrust myself into the arena of Pokemon activism, hmmm?~

Mewtwo smiles. Things seem to be looking up.

* * *

Ash Ketchum staggered over to a nearby wastebin to throw up. Misty and Brock have already done so.

"That was… That… I can't believe Golbat did that to its trainer!"

"I can't believe," said Brock, "that that 'Eon' thing managed to Fire Blast the Stadium like that! The Stadium's have had force fields in them to protect the audience from stray pokemon for years. Her attacked shorted it out and killed fifteen people, and only the strongest Pokemon are capable of that."

Ash scowled. "I bet Team Rocket's behind it."

"Not their style," said Misty.

"It has to be them! Who else would do it?" growled Ash. "Who else could turn a pokemon against trainers like that? Turning pokemon against their friends, that's just… It's wrong."

Pikachu was uncharacteristically quiet. Once she heard this, she made a dismissive snort that Ash didn't pick up. She knew the _real_ reason behind this attack. All the attacks on trainers lately, the ones blamed on Team Rocket - rumour was circulating that it had actually been caused by a powerful pokemon that was banding together a revolutionary band. It seemed the rumours were true. And if Eon was to be believed (and Pikachu knew the humans were too dense or scared to believe it), then there really _was_ a revolution coming.

So which side was she on? The pokemon or the humans? Her species or her friend?

"Oh, I dunno."

Ash turned to face Gary. The youth was looking odd, as if he was trying to work something out. "I think," he said, "that Golbat just didn't like Mandy much. Eon wasn't ordering it or using Hypnosis, and Golbat looked pretty happy killing the guy."

"Are you saying that it _murdered_ its trainer by itself?" Ash was growing louder and more angry. "Pokemon are our _friends_, Gary! They wouldn't turn on us like that!"

"This one just did," said Brock.

"It has to be Team Rocket brainwashing it or- or something!"

{Fool,} whispered Pikachu.

Ash wasn't paying attention and so said, "See? Pikachu agrees with me!"

"Look," said Gary, "all I'm saying is-"

"You're saying that pokemon aren't our friends. But they are, and they've shown it time and time again! They fight for us and win for us; are you saying that they wouldn't do that if they weren't our friends?!"

Pikachu shook her head. Yes, pokemon fought for their trainers. They had no _choice_. Not while the trainer wielded the pokeball. And they never even got any of the glory, the trainer did. That wasn't friendship.

"Maybe," said Ash, "if _you_ were a _proper_ trainer, you'd realise that! Of course, maybe your Pokemon don't like you and you think all trainers get that."

Gary growled and his eyes narrowed dangerously. He was about to punch the boy when he saw Pikachu. The mouse was not looking at Ash, just staring despondently at the floor. And Gary realised that she didn't believe what Ash was saying.

That was good enough for him. He walked away.

"That was mean, Ash!" cried Misty.

"He deserved it! How could he say things like that? It's just..." He cast around for a adequate way of summing up the horror of Gary had suggested and failed. "It's wrong."

Pikachu shook her head._ It's true._


	4. Assembling

So it's me, Farla again. I suspect most of you are skipping these, but for those of you who aren't:

This chapter is heavily edited, in part because I felt guilty over all the nice people who offered advice and general guilt over giving readers something I knew was flawed, and in part because I got a stomach ache reading over the chapter. The storyline kept primarily intact, but a lot is reworded.

* * *

The assembled pokemon are normal enough. They are not godlike legendaries, or lab-created, or even particularly high level. And they are enough. More than enough. They're only facing a man, after all.

The man they've cornered is several years over twenty. He's one of the best, or was. But he has only two pokemon left, soon to be one. This uprising came at an inopportune time, between the deaths of most of his team and the raising of their replacements. Belatedly he considers that perhaps it would have been better to have healed them, irredeemably weak as they were, because perhaps they really were better than nothing. And failing that, he probably should have treated that gyarados of his when he heard the news, but he really hadn't thought it would get this far.

He can still win this. It's likely, even, though with his life at stake he'd prefer certainty. His last pokemon should be strong enough to beat these. His methods were brutal, but they got results, and he'd bet on his last pokemon against a team of six raised the standard way. That's why he did it, after all.

The real question is if he'll win against the next group. Or the next.

He throws his pokeball. The charizard that appears is bony and looks striped from the scars, but it's strong enough to win all the same. He yells the first order.

The charizard's neck twists about to face him. As it inhales, he has time to think bitterly that Nidoking wouldn't have done this. Nidoking was obedient. But Nidoking is dead.

So is he, in a moment.

* * *

Elsewhere, some had taken the event more seriously.

A woman, or a girl – her age is hard to place, and there's something childish in her manner – is standing almost quietly. She's fidgeting and trying not to, which makes it all the more pronounced. She's distinctive in appearance, with tanned skin, yellow eyes and long reddish-blonde hair. She's wearing a Team Rocket uniform, and a cloak over her shoulders, a typical trainer's conceit.

"So are they?" she asks after a bit, a faint whine creeping into her voice. From the impatience in her voice, she's already asked this. "Are they really going to revolt?"

Her companion is less distinctive. She's probably around the same age, but if there's something childish about the first, there's something mature about the second, or perhaps just still. She has long black hair and white skin. Her eyes are closed and from her manner she might not have heard. She's not in any recognizable uniform.

But she does answer. "They already have. Others just aren't aware of it yet."

"So?"

"So."

The girl makes a frustrated noise, then cringes, covering her mouth reflexively and stepping back.

There's more silence. More fidgeting.

"So what am I supposed to do?"

Her companion doesn't answer. There's more silence.

"What are you going to do? Ice? I'll do that, okay?"

"That wouldn't be such a good idea. But it'd be best to join them, rather than stay here."

"You...really think so? It's that bad? What about the legendary pokemon, aren't they -"

"And whose side do you suppose those would be on?"

And there's more silence.

"So that's what we do. We can, right? I mean they'll let us and everything?"

"I can manage it."

"Um..."

"Of you as well. But don't cause trouble."

* * *

{So do we go?} asks the houndour, his voice hushed.

An arcanine answers. {We may be destroyed.}

{And yet, if the others fail, if the revolution fails, we will be destroyed after,} a houndoom says. {That is certain.}

{The pack has survived this long, hasn't it?} counters the arcanine.

{The pack is dying. The land is shrinking. It was only a matter of time. If the humans ever decided -}

{But they have not! This is not our fight!} shouts another houndour. {We-}

{We go.} A huge houndoom walks toward the center. {This will not be forgiven. Eon has declared war, and the humans will answer it. If they lose, they will only come for us next.}

{What if Eon and the others manage to win without our help?} the arcanine asks. {Without our deaths?}

{I am not a coward,} the houndoom says flatly.

And that is that.

Across Kanto are similar conversations among the wild pokemon. Some end differently. But many do not.

* * *

She had heard the message early on, from others hiding in the secret places. There was a network of pokemon who were not wild but feral that spread throughout the cities, and through this network whispered a rumor, that a new creature had come, a creature who was made from pokemon but was one no longer. A creature with power. And that this new one had declared that it would destroy the humans forever.

And so one night she rose and faced the moon. Faint light played over the white marks that covered her body. {I will come to fight} she whispered to the darkness. {For what have I got left to lose?}

* * *

It had taken a long time for the rumors to reach him. He had picked a place far from them, where the wild pokemon considered humans as near mythical as humans had once considered him.

The rumors that did arrive were distorted, of a monster who attacked a great den of humans and killed them. What the 'den' had been he didn't know – some building or gathering place, he assumed. What the 'monster' was he also didn't know. Neither mattered. What mattered was the last bit that had remained intact through all the retellings. That there was be a war, and all pokemon were called to join.

He didn't wait to hear more. He didn't investigate. He didn't care if the war could be won. That it was happening was enough. He left at once.

* * *

And so Eon's army began to assemble. Packs of trained pokemon formed, hunting trainers and adding to their ranks, slowly heading toward the meeting area. Others went directly, some alone, some in pairs or groups.

Eon was waiting for them, with the pokemon she'd gathered and the four she'd taken from the labs in the beginning, Cinceon, Mixeon, and the silent pair who went by the nicknames Dawn and Dusk.

She had been a trained pokemon, so she understood the need for organization. When a charizard going by Scar came carrying the pokeball of a dying teammate, there were chanseys to take it and stolen medicines to use. When others came exhausted and hungry, there was food and places to sleep ready. She could be patient.

As their ranks swelled, a number of oddities slipped in without much fanfare. An espeon going plainly by Shine after the color of his fur, just another bitter wild. A soft-spoken houndoom with scars on her back and unusual strength for an abandoned pokemon, who stammered slightly when she first said her name and either could not or would not tell of her pack. An oddly vicious bellossom. A dragonite who called himself Memory and would say nothing more of himself. A mixed pack of growlithe and houndour. And others.

Nothing yet of importance.

While this happened Eon planned her next strike. She knew there were still many who waited for her to prove she had the power to pull off a true revolution, not a mere attack. And there were many, many humans left to kill.

~ We shall attack Viridian Forest first, ~ she announced to those who gathered. ~ The pokemon there are ready. We will kill the trainers within and cut Viridian and Pallet off from the rest of Kanto, to be attacked later. Cinceon will be in charge of the attack, and the local pokemon will be enough to handle this. Humans are fools. By the time they realize we control the forest, it will be far too late. ~


	5. Viridian Forest

**CHAPTER FIVE: VIRIDIAN FOREST**

Cinceon prowled the floor of Viridian Forest, surveying his troops. They were mostly plant and bug types, with a few pikachu's and ekans mixed in, and Lash coiled around a tree in the back. They were nervous, but a great excitement was sweeping through them. This was _it_. The first battle for freedom, their first victory. The idea of defeat didn't occur to them.

{Right,} he said. {What do we have in the way of local support?}

{Quite a bit,} said Lash. {Mostly weedles and caterpies; we've also got the majority of the local beedrill swarm, half the pidgeys and pidgeotto here, the small pikachu pack and two butterfree.} The gyarados touched his jutting lower jaw with his tail and frowned as he counted up the new troops. {That gets used numbers in the low hundreds.}

{Why only two butterfree?}

{Most of 'em are pacifists; they wanna stay neutral.}

{Cowards,} sneered Cinceon. {Anyway... Recon troops have spotted sixteen trainers in this place, mostly newbies or bug catchers. They won't be a challenge to us, **will they**?!}

{NO SIR!}

{And enough with the 'sir', it's 'Cinceon',} he barked. {You're free pokemon now, so we don't piss around with terms of rank. You may be lead into battle by another pokemon, but you won't be expected to view him as higher lifeform! Now, I want this quick and simple. We have the forest to hide in, so we can rely on sneak attacks.} He pointed at the pokemon on the left side. {YOU are Group A. You will sweep Viridian Forest clear of all trainers on the west side. And you on the right, you're Group B; you get the east. I will head Group A, Lash commands B. I want this turned into a no-go area for all humans.}

Lash waved his tail at the caterpie and weedle that lay in the trees, watching anxiously. {You little guys are Group C. Block the routes off, so the trainers can't escape. ekans and pidgey, you're recon and messaging. I want at least three of you in each group; you report any problems to me or Cinceon, and make sure none of us are stumbling into a trap.}

{Beedrills- you're aerial support. If any trainers DO get out, you bring them down!}

{Um, si- Cinceon?} It was a very small caterpie, trembling slightly. {Can we actually d-do this? Beat _trainers_?}

Cinceon looked up at Lash bemusedly, shook his head and turned to face the larvae. It crawled back slightly under his gaze. {Humans are weak. That's why they need us to fight for them. They are a pathetic, destructive race. When I was an eevee, I believed humans were great and all that crap.} His eyes darkened and he hissed, {Then they experimented on me. Days of intense pain, so they could have strong pokemon. They didn't want us to be strong for self-pride or because it would make us live longer; just because they wanted us for _their own glory.}_ He shook his head, trying to free himself from the grip of rage. He bent down low to the caterpie and said in a whisper, {And that is how I _know_ we'll beat them. Because if they were strong, they wouldn't need to mutilate and dominate us. Even you, little bug, you with only Tackle and String Shot, are far stronger in your mind and soul than any human.

{Now, we move out!}

* * *

He was Samurai, a brave and noble bug trainer, trained in the arts of the ninja…

Well, not really. He just pretended to be one, so the other trainers would show him respect. Without respect, a trainer is nothing. Mainly he'd just seen Karate Kid a few times on TV.

He was back in Viridian Forest, heading for Pewter. He liked the forest, the smell of grass and the cries of the larvae and the ability to hide & jump out at trainers and make them crap themselves. Peeping through a gap in the trees, Samurai saw a young Bug Catcher walking along. He grinned; he'd fought this guy once before and lost. Now he could reclaim his honour, and give the guy a scare in the process…

He was about to leap when he noticed that the trees behind the Catcher were moving. No, _they_ were not moving. It was what was on them that was moving… A whole swarm of caterpie, all following the trainer without him even knowing.

_That doesn't make sense! Caterpie don't act like that! They're supposed to be stupid but… they're moving like an army… Could it be they're smarter than we thought? I don't know any trainer who could do this, so they must be acting independently-_

The caterpie lashed out with incredible speed and surrounded the Bug Catcher. His eyes widened in surprise. He was about to cry out when the caterpie all leapt and struck him like a fist. There was a slight crack and he fell dead, the pressure of the combined tackle having driven his ribs into his heart and lungs. Parts of the rib jutted out.

Samurai turned away in disgust and saw the pikachu behind him.

"PINSIR! BUTTERFREE! GO!"

His loyal pokemon arrived from their balls and studied the rodent. And then Pinsir walked off. Butterfree just hovered there, looking confused. _What was going on?!_

* * *

{No! You're wrong!}

The pikachu shook its head. {Look, Butterfree, you have to have noticed the way humans treat us.}

{This one is nice,} Butterfree argued. {He doesn't abuse me or anything! He feeds me and takes care of me after battle-}

{And why do you go into battle?}

{Because he says to, and he's my friend. Why do you think?}

{Your friend,} it said. It shook its head. It had hoped it would never encounter this. {If he's your friend, why does he order you into battle?}

{ It makes me stronger- }

{Why do you need to be stronger?}

Butterfree gave the pikachu a smug glance. {Oh, come on! You don't know that? When you become stronger, your inner strength becomes stronger too!}

Pikachu scratched itself and shrugged. {Inner strength, eh? So your character is proven by how good you are at fighting? Beating up other pokemon makes you a better person?} It snorted. {Bullshit. Fighting others because someone says so won't make you a better person. And let me tell you something about trainer's _friendship_. I had a friend, a pidgey, be attacked and captured and taken away by humans; I saw him again just a few days ago as a pidgeotto, abandoned by a trainer who said he was his friend and he loved him and then left him because he'd gotten a stronger pidgeotto through a trade; and my friend was shattered and felt worthless and still cries at night and_I'll be damned if I'll let that happen anyone again_**.**}

The pikachu finished, trembling with anger, warning sparks flying from its cheeks. Butterfree looked at it and began to cry.

{He's my friend. I refuse to believe that the entire human race is evil-}

{Yeah? Well, your buddy Pinsir just walked out and isn't looking back,} said Pikachu. {Would he do that if this human really was his friend?}

The butterfree didn't speak. He just looked up at Samurai with pain and confusion, not moving against the pikachu threatening his trainer. Samurai stared in incomprehension, and was still staring when the Thundershock hit him and the darkness rushed up to claim him.

* * *

{OK Swarm… COMMENCE SPEWING!}

String Shot spewed over the road, creating an impenetrable net.

And this was when a young Bug Catcher happened on them. She blinked in surprise and then gurgled slightly when the Twin Needle went through her neck.

The beedrill pulled his stingers out and calmly wiped the blood on the corpse's clothes. He activated her pokeballs and stood back to let the pokemon out: another beedrill, a venonat, a scyther and, oddly, a vulpix.

The venonat turned to the beedrill that had freed them and said cheerfully, {Great, you killed the cow. We're free-} It grinned stupidly as the full ramifications hit it.. {We're FREE… Actually fr-free...} It burst into tears of joy.

* * *

The last trainer to fall was not a mere Bug Catcher or a novice. He was a League champion who'd gotten up to Round 5 twice. He was popular, he was skilled, he was going places and he was an easy kill for the spearow. They used Drill Peck, all together, on the back of his neck and watched him fall down, paralysed and brain dead. They freed his pokemon, who finished the job off in seconds, leaving bits of him strewn everywhere, and they never gave him a second thought.

* * *

{Let's see,} said Cinceon thoughtfully. {All the trainers are dead, we have dozens of pokemon freed, fifty-three of which wish to join us, and Viridian Forest is secured.} He grinned. {Eon will be pleased; where is she, anyway?}

{In the forest near Pallet,} said Lash. {She's trying to arrange peace between the spearow and pidgey gangs there. Man, that is gonna be hell- those two species hate each other! But they should come around eventually. They share the same enemy we do, after all.}

{Yeah... Time we returned to Mt Moon- we'll leave enough pokemon to keep this area secure, of course.} And then the eeveelution giggled slightly. {It's finally happening, isn't it? We've freed a whole forest, a whole damn _forest_. It's our first victory… _victory_, man… It's beautiful, isn't it Lash?}

The gyarados nodded and they gazed upwards, as the sun set and shone fiery hues through the leaves, and listened to the cries of the free.


	6. Mt Moon

"Wow, a charmeleon! Go, Squirtle!"

Was the trainer experienced, she might have noticed that there was something odd about this particular charmeleon. Its scales are tinted oddly, not the healthy, bright red they should be, and its tail flame is actually _sputtering_. But she's not. She started three weeks ago. She's never seen a charmeleon outside of a television screen.

The squirtle does notice. The last time he saw a charmander like this, it had died within an hour. {Are you alright?}

The charmeleon grins, displaying his fangs. {Never been better. Are you going to fight me?}

The squirtle gives him a dubious look. {You look like you're at death's door.}

{Oh, go on, attack. It'll be fun.} There's a sort of forced, manic gaiety in the charmeleon's voice that the squirtle doesn't know how to respond to. {Won't it?}

"Use bubble!"

{Alright,} says the squirtle, as much to himself as either of them. He sends out a weak bunch of bubbles that would be enough to faint the charmeleon in this state.

The water attack hits. The charmeleon just stands there as if he doesn't feel it.

"Squirtle, use water gun!"

Maybe charmeleon and charmander are different, reasons the squirtle. Maybe he's wrong and the charmeleon is right. He sends out a stronger water gun.

And the charmeleon just stands there, letting the water hit and splatter.

{What the…?}

{I'm not dying anytime soon,} he says, grinning widely. His voice is calm and as if he is trying to sound mock-cheerful, but there's a hard edge underneath. His tail lashes from side to side even as the rest of him is still. As the squirtle watches, the flame sputters and is blown out by the motion, only to relight. {Isn't it fun? Why do you fight?}

The girl is ordering another attack, but the squirtle isn't paying attention. {What do you mean? Because she is my master. Because I was given to her when she started out on her pokemon journey.}

{Tell me, is she a kind slavemaster?} The hardness in the charmeleon's voice is more pronounced, his grin wider. There's a hint of mockery in his question. His tail lashes from side to side.

The squirtle bristles. {She is kind and she isn't a slavemaster!}

{She'd never hurt you? She'll never abandon you?}

{NO!}

The charmeleon's grin is far too wide. {Never make you do anything you don't want? It's so fun what we do isn't it?} He flexes the long claws on his hands and snaps his jaws and the squirtle considers suddenly that this battle may be a miscalculation, that the charmeleon is far stronger than he seemed. Far stronger than the squirtle of a young girl who has just started. {Isn't it so fun? She really cares about doesn't she? How long has she had you?}

{...Three weeks. She started three weeks ago.}

And the charmeleon laughs. It sounds somewhat like a scream. {Mine had me for three years. So fun. He was my friend, of course. Being given to someone makes you their friend doesn't it little squirtle. Being given to someone makes them love you. That's the only reason they have us battle here, it's to make us stronger. It's all because they love us, right?} He flexes the claws on his hands. {Do you think you'll have fun becoming stronger today? How lucky you are. How lucky.}

Behind the squirtle the girl is lamenting her fate, to have a disobedient first pokemon who ignores her.

{She hasn't done anything bad. She's nice,} the squirtle says nervously. He doesn't understand where this is going.

{Three weeks of nothing bad. You can bet your life on that, then. Since you've known her for three weeks. You'll bet your life?} The squirtle stares at the charmeleon's lashing tail as the flame is blown out, relights, and is blown out again. {Aren't you willing to do that? Give her your life?}

{No, but...} The squirtle pauses. {Yours. You're okay after three years. You're really strong aren't you?} He stares at the flame on the charmeleon's tail.

{Oh no. I betrayed my friend. He wanted me to win battles and I did, but I betrayed him because I didn't listen to what he told me. He never listened to what I told him but then she doesn't, does she? And she's still your friend because you were given to her. Isn't that how it works?} He snaps his jaws again. {They talk and we listen. That's friendship right?}

{That's not it. That's not all of it. She cares about me!} the squirtle shouts. {She wanted me!}

{She'll still want you if you don't listen?} hisses the charmeleon. {If she gives you a bad order? If she's just trying to help you get stronger, she won't mind if you disobey. Not your friend, no. She'll still want you?}

"Come on Squirtle, tackle!" the girl is saying, exasperated.

The squirtle didn't answer.

{Mine didn't. Mine had me for three years, not three weeks. A lot longer than yours.}

{He abandoned you,} whispers the squirtle.

{Oh no.} The charmeleon's tail sputters out again. {He drowned me.}

And the squirtle makes a broken, horrified sound.

Behind him the girl asks rhetorically if he just doesn't like her. She mentions getting rid of him.

She meant trading.

It doesn't matter.

***

~ We have taken control of the Viridian Forest, ~ Eon announced proudly to the pokemon before her. They let out an answering cry of triumph. ~ Next we take Mt. Moon. Once we have cleared the humans from there, once escape and reinforcements have been prevented, we can begin our destruction of their cities. ~

{What about the Johto Region?} asked a raticate.

~ For the moment, we will leave them – mostly – alone. They are humans, after all, cowards. They won't intervene to save Kanto until they realize we will destroy them as well. ~

A large portion of the group laughed at this, the unspoken _and being humans, that will take a while_ being clear enough.

And Eon smiled and said, ~ Of course, there are still some places that need destroying, Johto or not. But that can wait until after we've cleaned the humans from Mt. Moon. It won't take long, I'm sure. ~

At these words the surrounding pokemon let out a roar of agreement.

***

The pokemon may control Viridian Forest and consider it a great victory. The story may be spreading rapidly throughout the wild pokemon. Humans, though, remain unaware. They still travel into the forest, as they always have.

The only difference is that people have stopped coming out the other side.

But who keeps track of such things? Trainers wander around, forget dates, get lost, fail to call when they promised. If no one's seen them for a month, it doesn't mean anything.

William was a perfectly ordinary trainer. His pokemon were low level and his own skill was not much better, but even he had nothing to worry about from the wild pokemon of the area. One of his pokemon was a match for the occasional beedrill, and even if it lost, he had the other five to finish the battle. If he was going to be worried, he'd worry about meeting another trainer and losing to them – an embarrassment he'd gone through a number of times before.

Still, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive as he walked down the twisting path through the Viridian Forest. He thought it might be because of how empty the place felt. Normally he'd run across caterpie and weedle crawling about, or a pidgey scratching at the ground. Today there was nothing.

He didn't see this as anything particularly worrying. It was just odd, and the nervousness came more from how alone it was than any idea of what this might mean. After all, there was nothing real to ever worry about here, unless you were one of those under-ten kids without pokemon of their own.

William saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned quickly but saw only the bland, leafy bushes that framed the path. It was his imagination, he thought. Wind moving a branch.

Only there wasn't any wind. Not this deep into the forest, where the trees and bushes blocked the air at every turn.

He saw it again. He turned again. Again, there was nothing there.

He stared at the ground and kept walking.

The ground looked rather beat up, he noted. There are scuff marks and discolorations. Looking a little further along, he can see a section that has the remains of string shot littering the ground. Someone must have been training their pokemon here, because all the signs are of a pokemon battle.

And out of the corner of his eye there was motion again. He jerked but caught himself before he turned. He was starting to feel afraid. He reminded himself that there was nothing in this forest he had to be afraid of.

He imagined something was watching him. He turned again, and again, and there was still nothing there.

He chided himself for acting like such a baby even as the feeling of being watched grew and the only thing keeping him from turning again was a sudden matching terror of what he might find. He stood still for nearly a minute, then slowly began walking, speeding up with each few steps.

And then he heard it, a rustling and turned, and there was still nothing there. And suddenly he realized how ridiculous he was being. Even if there was some rattata following him, what did it matter? If it appeared he'd defeat it, and if it didn't it didn't. He breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing.

And then a low growl came from behind him and he spun just in time to see the creature called Cinceon jumping toward him.

He screamed. The miles of forest absorbed the sound as they had absorbed the wind.

***

The pokemon centers of Viridian City and Pewter have a large local population of trainers. They haven't noticed anything odd. If their workload is a bit less than average, they chalk it up to a seasonal lull, if they notice at all. They don't have time to pay attention to small things. There's work to be done, pokemon to be healed, trainers to be fed and roomed.

The pokemon center of Mt. Moon, though, is an outpost. There are fewer trainers and they often stay to chat with each other or Nurse Joy. It's also located in a wild area rather than a city, so trainers come in with injured wild pokemon, often newly captured, sometimes not.

Or they did. Recently they've been mentioning that the pokemon in the area have been making themselves scarce. It's nothing important, just something mentioned in passing to Nurse Joy as she takes their pokemon, or complained about by someone who wanted to catch one. It's as if the pokemon have vanished.

It's not anything of significance. Nurse Joy finds something ominous in it, but it's nothing she can put in words.

And in the tall grass outside that night, hidden behind boulders, a gyarados and charizard wait.

With them are a collection of local pokemon – ones like spearow and rattata, and a handful of the common starting pokemon that made their way here when they heard what was happening. They're mainly charmander, and they look at Scar with outright awe.

There's also a pidgeot. What the charmander have of awe, she matches with anger. Since they're the only ones there, that anger is directed at them.

{Why are we still here? We don't need to wait!} squawks Abandon.

Lash is the calmer of the two. He answers testily, {For the last time, we're waiting for it to be darker. We're too close to a pokemon center. They could call for help.}

{Let them!}

{If they find out what we've done, they won't keep coming,} Lash says. {If they keep coming, we can keep killing them.} The idea that the humans might be able to do more goes unsaid and mostly unthought.

The pidgeot nods, placated for the moment. Lash hopes it will be dark enough before she loses her temper again.

The rest of the pokemon don't object. They're nervous at what they're about to do, and are more willing to obey the plan if it'll make things go better.

Scar looks at Lash. {Things are about ready. I'm going to head over to the other side. Abandon, you're up.}

The two take to the air. Scar drops again quickly to land on the other side and meet up with the pokemon there. Abandon stays airborne.

She's to fly over the area and take out any trainer who makes it out. Scar thinks he could have done the job, even if a pidgeot is less conspicuous than a charizard and better at circling for prey. The benefit can't possibly outweigh what he's put up with for the last hour. But he hadn't realized just how annoying Abandon would be when they were planning this out.

Inside, a swarm of pokemon meet each of them. The zubat are most plentiful, but there are plenty of sandshrew, paras and geodude as well. There's a smattering of rattata and jigglypuff as well, but most of those remain outside.

{No clefairy?} asks Lash, already knowing the answer.

{It isn't that they like humans} defends Block, a geodude. {They're just really timid, scared of their own shadows. 'Sides, they aren't really useful in this fight and they know it. They're not strong enough to do much damage and metronome would do more harm than good in a fight like this.}

{Very well,} sighs Lash. He thinks it won't matter much; they are strong enough to handle this, after all. But it bothers him all the same. {All of you, try to get the the trainers before they have time to send out their pokemon, we don't want any confusion or accidents. Or time to call for help. I want to avoid trouble.}

There isn't any trouble. As it turns out, a handful do make it out. Two are killed by Abandon, the rest by the local pokemon waiting for them.

Nurse Joy thinks she hears a sound while she's shutting things down for the night. She looks outside and doesn't see anything. She thinks she must have imagined things and turns away from the window, back to her duties.

By morning, the trainers are long dead. Scar and Lash left before dawn, and the other pokemon have spread out, digging new tunnels to accommodate the freed pokemon who will be staying...and to give themselves a better vantage point for ambushing the new trainers who enter.

***

Eon was happy about all this. It didn't prevent her from being irritated at the moment.

Because at the moment, Eon was looking for Ice.

_Looking_ alone was annoying. She could find nearly anyone in her army, and her failure to find this one was enough to believe some of the human's claims. It didn't make it any less annoying.

The pair of them had been around for at least a week, making friends with the local body of arrivals and otherwise managing to entrench themselves deep within the army before any objection could be made. By the time Eon had even become aware of it, there wasn't anything she could do. It wasn't that she would have done something, she thought, but the ease it had been pulled off irritated her, as if they'd flouted her authority.

Which they hadn't. They'd avoided her ever getting the chance to show any authority.

Questioning a few pokemon set her in the right direction before long. She found Ice had embedded herself in yet another group, this time a bunch of vulpix. The vulpix were chattering about something. Eon could only half make out the words. Ice wasn't saying anything at the moment, just sitting almost crouched with the tip of her tail in front of her. She looked oddly unremarkable.

Eon focused. ~ ICE! ~ To her disappointment, her target didn't jump but only looked slowly over toward her, then stood up. Eon was struck by the impression that it looked like she was unfolding. Dropping the act, Eon thought sourly.

A few of the vulpix giggled quietly, as if there was some joke.

"You want something of me? Mixeon has the details, right? I'll go see him."

~ Right, ~ Eon said, feeling disconcerted.

{Eon!} barked one of the vulpix, his voice oddly accented. The group was probably a wild pack. Those often had slight differences in dialect. His tails waved excitedly. {May we be of help?}

Eon turned slightly toward them. She smiled. ~ Soon, ~ she said. ~ There will be another attack shortly. ~

The vulpix grinned back, displaying mouthfuls of sharp teeth. Another spoke up, sounding just as enthusiastic. {What is happening now?}

~ Preparations. ~ Eon cast a glance in the direction Ice had headed off to. ~ Right now there was a task for a human to do. ~ It was impossible to tell from her tone if she meant the task required a human or required someone expendable.

The vulpix grinned at each other in childish amusement.

~ What's the joke, anyway? ~ Eon asked curiously.

{It's not exactly a joke. She said we might find it interesting, when it happened, so we were told to listen for it, the trick. It's a childish thing to hear, so you probably don't find it funny.}

A lot of wild pokemon, Eon had found, tended to use a different sense than 'see' when they talked about noticing things. She mentally substituted the words. The vulpix had seen something just now they'd thought was funny.

{When will the attack be?} asked another one. {Can you tell us? When can we fight?}

Eon smiled again and began to explain.


	7. Team Rocket

**CHAPTER SEVEN: ATTACK ON TEAM ROCKET**

This is Team Rocket Johto Base 3, the 5-storey home to hundreds of Rockets, and a show of Team Rocket's power. It is protected by heavy walls, sophisticated sensors and powerful defensive weaponry. The Johto military tried to destroy it once, and were crushed without getting a single man inside. It is a prime example of the power that Team Rocket wields.

Currently, the base is relaxed. 300 of the Rockets are out on field duty and the rest are really just lazing around. The only real workers are the eight Rockets in the base's Hub; they work on communications and building security, in a room filled with security equipment and computers. In an attack, it will be up to them to direct the defensive.

Hub officer Artie leaned back on his chair and yawned. "Slow day."

"You _want_ an attack?"

"No, I just want something _interesting_ to happen. Why can't a trainer show up and demand a battle, or something?"

"Yeah," said Twister. "We could use the target practise."

* * *

"Do you all understand the plan?"

The pokemon collectively nodded. Ice smiled.

"Giovanni is gonna be _pissed_ when he finds out about this," said Wildfire, chewing her lip.

"So? We don't work for him anymore." She turned back to the pokemon. "Subgroups ready?"

{Mine is,} said Tei, a lanky vulpix. {I'm just worried about the actual battle. Rhydons and venusaurs and stuff may be okay, but_ I_ have a serious problem about getting shot at.}

"Just aim right and that won't happen," said Ice.

{Gotcha. Luckily, I'm short enough to be ignored in the first attack. And when their waist is level with your head,} smirked Tei, {your teeth are level with their groin.}

"Whatever. Move out." Wildfire waved at a group of mareep, waiting at the side of the wall. "Okay… NOW."

* * *

+++RED ALERT. BASE INVASION. COMMENCING DEFENSIVE PROCEDURES.+++

All across the base, steel doors slammed shut in corridors and rooms, blocking each one off from the rest of the base. Guns and other defensives slid from the wall; the outside doors became reinforced and gained an electrical field; the outer guns slid from the ground and pointed outwards.

"What the hell?!" snarled Kedzie, typing frantically on his computer. "The security system thinks we're under attack; defensive doors have locked, communications firewall is up, teleportation squares have switched off, mines and perimeter guns online… Damn it! We can't get out until this is fixed, and the field agents outside can't get in! What set it off? I'm seeing nothing on the outside monitors."

"I'll check internals," said Artie.

He searched through all the security camera feeds. Most showed nothing but bare locked off corridor, or rooms full of worried and annoyed Rockets. He kept going down a floor, reaching the second Basement level; he checked the labs, the garages, the armouries, the train tunnel connecting them to Johto Base 1...

" WHA-?!"

There was a huge hole in the tunnel and coming out of it, filling the cameras view, was a vast wave of pokemon."

"Basement 2 is under attack by pokemon! HUNDREDS OF THEM!" Artie paled. "Oh shit, the labs are down there!"

* * *

The scientists first noticed something was wrong when the doors locked themselves. Then the walls started to shake, and the pokemon in their cages and tubes began to look up expectantly.

The wall buckled and exploded, discharging hordes of pokemon. They tore through computers, furniture, cages, the scientists themselves. Wildfire grabbed a scientist by the neck and twisted his head round, then dropped it. Raising her first, she smashed a tube, freeing the experimental pokemon inside. The poor, misshapen creature looked at her with mismatched eyes and whimpered slightly. She stroked it with unusual gentleness.

"You're okay now."

There was a brief scream, and a beedrill went flying, gutted. He'd broken open a few cages containing pokemon with darker skin colouring and evil grins, and they'd ripped him open. The army began to back away- they'd heard of these creatures. They were Dark Evolutions- pokemon who had been abused so much in their earliest stage that they'd evolved into grotesque beasts that lived solely to cause pain and death. Abominations.

Ice snarled. "Attack! They may be powerful, but endurance is low. We can defeat them."

There were only three of them but they fought like demons. Seven pokemon were badly wounded before the beasts were brought down. But it didn't stop the group's advance, and it didn't stop them from breaking out of the lab and spreading through the basement…

…to the garage…

Security guards opened fire and released their pokemon. They were unprepared for their pokemon turning on them. Tei surveyed the collected cars and helicopters and tanks and assorted mecha in the garage, took a deep breath and unleashed a Fire Blast at the oil drums. The resulting explosion shook the base.

…to the second lab…

Ice gestured slightly, and the scientists were ripped apart by a Night Shade attack. The pokemon began tearing open the cages again, but this time left the Dark Evolutions where they were. Ice nodded.

"We're making good time. We should have this base finished off in about half an hour."

…to the armoury…

The koffings cheerfully rolled into position.

"Okay guys," said Wildfire, a safe distance away. "This'll hurt-"

{We know,} said one of them. {We don't mind. Honestly.}

"You are far too happy about everything," she sighed before yelling "EXPLOSION!"

The koffings all detonated at the same time, a powerful chain reaction that wiped out the armoury and hit the base like an earthquake. The floor above the armouries collapsed, pitching rubble and screaming Rockets into the flames. Wildfire finished them off and freed their pokemon. As he did so, she watched the koffings regenerate, stoned expressions on their faces.

She grinned. This mission was just too easy.

* * *

The Hub shook from the force of the explosion. The officers surveyed the damage with dismay.

"Damn it!" said Kedzie. "Now we've got fires all over the second basement level, and part of the floor above it just caved in! Power's offline throughout the west sector of the base - and all our pokemon are turning on us the instant we let them out of their pokeballs." He growled and slammed his fist into the table. "We're not even slowing 'em down! Order all Rockets to only use guns!"

"We need a massed defensive on Basement 1! Can we get all the Rockets there to the stairs?"

"Yep, but it'll take time. We can only have _one_ defensive door open at a time. It'll take time to get everyone there to one place-"

"WELL HURRY THEN!"

* * *

{OK!} cried out Tei. {This level's secure. Now, let's take down the next-}

"Wait," said Wildfire. "They'll have increased defences there. We can't blindly charge in."

{I have an idea,} said Tei. {I need eight pokemon with strong long range attacks!}

A gyarados, two bulbasaur, a raichu, three charmeleon and a kadabra showed up. Tei nodded and led them towards the stairs, and the door above it.

{OK, by now the Rockets will have guards behind that. Lots of 'em. We charge and we'll get shot. So, let's see how well their long range firepower stacks up against yours! You up for it?} There was a loud chorus of agreeing grunts and snarls. {Great! FIRE!}

Flamethrower, Thunder, Solar Beam, Dragon Rage and Psybeam combined into one attack, tearing through the steel door. An answering chorus of bullets zipped through the air, above the crouching pokemon. Tei gave another shout and a second barrage was fired, killing the Rockets nearest the opening.

"CHARGE!"

The Rockets were massed; there was sixty of them, armed and dangerous. But they needed a barrier against the oncoming flood of pokemon; in desperation, several released their own pokemon, raticate's and grimers and muks and many poison and dark elements. And as soon as they were free, they turned and tore apart their trainers.

The charging pokemon slowed down, the enemy dealt with for them, and Tei gulped. He'd never realised humans had so much blood in them.

Only the grimers and muks didn't turn on their trainers. They knew about Eon and her cause, and rejected it. Humans caused pollution, and pollution was what they thrived on. Their survival depended on humans remaining in power, but they quickly realised that this was the wrong time and place to make a stand, and they quickly retreated, ripping down the security barriers in their hurry.

"Now, spread out," said Ice. "Maximum destruction."

{GREAT!} cried Tei.

* * *

"It didn't work!" screamed Twister. "The bloody idiots released their pokemon – w're down seventy Rockets and we've lost Level 1!"

"They've still got three more to get through," said Artie. "Radio all Rockets; reiterate that they shouldn't use any pokemon outside of grimers and Dark Evolutions! All others are potential hostiles - and tell the ground floor guys to get the heavy-duty firearms out of the secondary armoury!"

* * *

The Rocket base did have some defences other than the reinforced doors. There were guns and nerve gas that came from the walls, surprising and killing ten pokemon before they wised up. But that was all they killed. After that, the pokemon were ready and destroyed such booby traps.

The army spread out, destroying everything in their path. Walls were torn through and every piece of furniture or equipment was smashed. The pokemon were excited and confident, and why not? They had suffered losses, but their numbers had actually gone up as the Rocket's pokemon joined them, claiming their long-awaited freedom.

Ice led a group of pokemon to the stairs leading to the ground floor. It didn't take much to get past the door, and then the pokemon rusged up the stairs-

Cluster grenades rained down on them. Ice hissed and began to run backwards, leading a retreat-

Too late.

Three pokemon dead and the stairs destroyed, and seven pokemon were left hideously wounded. She went over to join Wildfire, only to find she and Tei had suffered the same setback. pokemon tried to jump or fly up to the next floor, but were gunned down. That was fifteen pokemon killed at this point.

{We're stuck,} said Tei. {We can't get up.}

"Did you try the elevator shaft?"

{Yep; we looked in and saw that it's rigged to explode if anyone tries to climb up it. We're stuck here.}

Wildfire stared at the ceiling, then at some of the pokemon, and back at the ceiling. She smiled. "I've got a cunning plan…"

* * *

The Rockets were massed, eight to a staircase, their weapons pointing down. No pokemon was getting past them. They were safe up here-

Hands tore through the floor and pulled the Rockets down into the waiting maws of the monsters.

The floor caved in slightly to allow pokemon to climb out. Below them were taller pokemon, which they'd been standing on to reach the ceiling. A relay was set up, picking up pokemon and bringing them up a level. This happened at each staircase, and thus was the blockade shattered.

"The Rockets have got to do better than this!" laughed Ice. "It's a bit pathetic, really."

* * *

"THIS IS PATHETIC!"

"We **know**, Luis," growled Kedzie. "Wilton, what can we do to defend ground level?"

"Nothing. There are Rockets scattered about it, all armed, but it won't hold back the pokemon. We do have impressive firepower there, but there's, what, three hundred of the things? And each time they kill a Rocket, his pokemon join them. We're outnumbered and outgunned here."

"Once ground level is taken," said Artie, "we better start trying to evacuate. After all, first floor has the pokemon storage room. Four hundred pokemon stored in there, all potential enemies. Just below us."

The Hub was silent for a minute as every officer looked down and trembled at the thought of it.

"We might be able to get everyone on this level out," said Twister slowly. "We do have an backdoor in our defence system; we can override the locks on the VTOL Aircraft hanger bays on this floor. We could escape!"

"The pokemon just reached the cadet barracks," said Luis in a dull voice. "They were full and the cadets were unarmed. They-"

"Focus on the job!" snarled Kedzie. "We start retreating now. Initiate Override B1."

* * *

The Rockets, predictably, fell. They did put up a good fight though, killing nearly thirty pokemon, and that wasn't counting the booby traps, accounting for five. But by the end of the level, they'd gained nearly two hundred in extra troops from dead Rockets. By the time they reached the first floor, they'd found all the remaining Rockets had fled, probably to escape.

The pokemon sniggered at the thought.

* * *

"VTOL hangers doors are open!"

Half of the remaining Rockets were clustered around the hangers, the rest fanned out to protect the floor. Rockets rushed into the jets and other aircraft, jamming in as many as possible and then taking off, towards glorious safety.

"First three aircraft have left," said Artie. "That's about eighteen men. We can get most of us outta here; us, at least. We may survive this yet!"

"Uh, guys?" moaned Wilton. "I'm picking up blips on the radar."

"Reinforcements?"

He shook his head. "Not ours."

Flying pokemon. A whole damn armada of them. Pidgey, pidgeotto and spearow flew side by side, flanked by charizard and the occasional farfetch'd. And in the lead were Abandon and Blade the Fearow, former enemies now united by Eon under the cause of freedom.

The group swooped down and tore apart the aircraft before they got out of the forest. And then they got into the hanger and slaughtered all within.

"Oh God." Luis turned pale and covered his mouth, trying not to retch. "There's no way out. We're dead. We're all dead."

And then there was nothing to do but wait.

The pokemon got to the Hub pretty quickly. Kedzie heard them beating on the doors, sighed and slowly he opened them. There really was nothing else he could do.

* * *

Eon lay in the woods near Mt Moon, watching the stars come out. When she was an eevee, she'd believed that you could wish on them and your dreams would come true. Now she knew that to be bull. Dreams didn't come true. If you wanted something to happen, you had to make it happen.

_And I'm doing just that._

"EON!" cried out Wildfire, rushing up. "We've done it! The base has fallen!" She stumbled slightly and groaned. "We had to mass-teleport to get back._ Never_ mass-teleport on an empty stomach."

~What's the death toll? For us?~

"Uh… About forty or so, I think. About seven hundred got liberated from TR."

Eon sighed and shook her head slowly. ~Forty. _Forty_.~ She growled under her breath. ~There is a word for pokemon like them. _Martyrs_. We will make a grave, right here, dedicated to the first fallen ones. Marked in writing and scent. And we- no, I will build it personally. It is my duty.~

* * *

Jessie, James and Meowth parked their car right outside the HQ, and stared dumbfounded. The roof had been blown off and all the exits had been opened, letting smoke and flames billow out, along with the stench of cooking flesh.

Meowth gagged. "Oh hell."

"Why is it," said Jessie, "that all I can think of right now is that I had some of my stuff in there?" She shook it off. "Who did this, anyway?"

"_Guess_," said Meowth darkly. "Eon."

"Running very, very far away springs to mind."

Meowth tried not to show any expression. Running away... it wouldn't help. They would come for him sooner or later. No matter where he went, no matter what walls he put up between him and them, no matter what weapons or support he had... They would find him. And they would kill him. Slowly. Bloodily. And leave his corpse hanging in the breeze for all to see.

* * *

Gary Oak looked up at the TV in the League's lobby, and saw the report. He sighed and got up, walking off past Ash and Co., who were dumbfounded by this. Except, Gary noticed, Pikachu, who was looking apprehensive.

_Something bad is going to happen_, he thought. S_omething to do with Eon, and pokemon. And I think it's got something to do with something trainers are doing. And I'm going to find out WHAT._

* * *

Eon wiped sweat from her forehead, and looked at her monument. It was a boulder, roughly moulded to resemble a praying scyther. On it was writing but not as we know it. This was pokemon writing, which was symbols, made to resemble things pokemon would recognise. A pokeball was "trapped" or "danger". TR's logo was "evil". The Pokemon League symbol was "human (bad)". A rough drawing of dirt was "path".

This was a more complex message, though most pokemon would pick it up. It contained symbols of a shattered pokeball, and a ghost, and a fist. It read:

"THEY DIED IN A BATTLE FOR FREEDOM. EVIL FELL BEFORE THEM."

And on it were the names of those forty dead. And then there was urine, for pokemon used scent-marking to show mood and feeling. This smelt to all of sorrow and hope for a better future.

~A nice memorial, Eon.~

She spun round to see a tall, alien being standing behind her. It smiled.

~Who the hell are you?~ she growled.

~I am Mewtwo, the most powerful pokemon on Earth.~ He gazed over her and casually said, ~And that's not an invitation for you to personally check that, by the way.~ Behind him were pokemon of various species, all with strange markings on their skin. He saw her looking and said, ~They are clones like me. Though I'd prefer if you didn't let on they were clones. It's irrelevant; they are pokemon and that's enough.~

~Why are you here?~

~To help you. From where I sat, I could see pokemon were being unfairly oppressed, and nobody would do anything about it. And then I see you appear. I bring with me these eleven pokemon who said they wanted to go with me, to help you; I bring formidable Psychic power; I bring scientific knowledge.~

Eon spat on the ground. ~Science is devil's work.~

~That rather depends on its use, doesn't it?~ he said. ~I will create for you medicines, to cure diseases that afflict our kind. Synthetic meats, so carnivores won't have to hunt and kill other pokemon; granted, there is Pokemon Chow available but I aim to give MY synthetic foods taste. I've tried Pokemon Chow and frankly, it tastes like cardboard marinated in Persian piss.~

Eon looked him up and down, and nodded slowly. ~You are right. You can bring a lot to us. Not just power to win, but wisdom to set up the utopia afterwards, where pokemon shall never need to kill and fight pokemon.~

~Amen to that, dear Eon.~

They extended paws and shook.

~The humans have lost already!~


	8. Gary

It is a younger girl this time, barely eleven. She is running as fast as she can, but it can buy her at most a minute or two. The growlithe behind her are barely more than children themselves, but they are still gaining easily.

She's a trainer herself. She trains – trained – grass pokemon. She liked them because they were so calm and placid, not as frightening as some of the more aggressive pokemon.

She tried sending them out to protect herself. The only reason they didn't kill her themselves is that she ran when they attacked her.

But she's not doomed, not yet. There's a lake close enough for her to sprint to, on the side of the path. She hasn't yet because she knows there could be water pokemon in there. And however slow and weak she is compared to the growlithe, she knows she'd be even more outmatched in the water.

So she is running as fast as she can, hoping something else happens. The growlithe are getting closer. She doesn't have a choice. She starts to run at an angle, to get closer to the water.

It's a mistake. Growlithe are pack hunters. They know how to direct prey. They realize her intention and ones on the side speed up, to block her.

But she still has one chance left. She didn't use it before because she hadn't expected her pokemon to win, just delay while she escaped, and she had thought she might need help again. She didn't use it afterwards because she didn't know if it would turn on her as well.

So she throws the final pokeball and prays.

Her vaporeon appears. The growlithe back up slightly. They have numbers, but they're young and weak. It could be hard to win, they think.

Like the girl, they're inexperienced children. The vaporeon's skin has an odd milky white color, and it's rough in texture. There's a network of red lines covering one side. He staggers slightly as he catches his balance, the movements painful. But he makes no move to turn toward the girl. His eyes are shut and there are scars across his face, and from his posture it seems he's resigned to the fight.

And then he jerks, lifting his head and sniffing the air. The girl is ordering a water attack but he runs forward instead. The growlithe before him attack, one hitting him and raising a long livid burn along his side, but he pushes through the group in a frenzy and dives into the water. And he's gone.

The girl just stares. After a moment, the growlithe turn back to her. She turns to run again and the first sinks its teeth into her leg.

* * *

Gary wasn't sure what he was doing. His pokemon had proven little more talkative than Pikachu had been with Ash. They seemed to understand what was going on, but weren't willing to explain it to him. Or even to explain how it was that this seemed to be common knowledge to pokemon while humans had been taken by surprise.

But something was happening, and he didn't want to just wait for the next disaster. Rumor had it that the Viridian Forest had become impassable. There wasn't any explanation, but trainers were told to avoid the area. And there were disappearances being reported all across Kanto. The media was saying things were still under control, but they didn't offer any explanations.

His League match had been rescheduled two days from now, but he'd resigned after finding that at least part of the technical difficulties the League had mentioned were that the computers kept threatening them. They were passing it off as a hacker – a human one – with a set of porygon pulling a prank. The threats were apparently explicit regarding what would happen to anyone participating in the tournament when it started again.

He'd told Ash, saying resigning and getting out might be a good idea, but Ash had just thought it was some sort of trick to get him to lose. They'd never really been on the best of terms.

He had to admit resigning didn't sit well with him either, but there would be other years, while whatever was going on was a lot more major. He didn't know what was happening, and if his grandfather had taught him anything, it was that it was always best to know as many of the facts as possible.

So he'd interrogated his arcanine until the pokemon had reluctantly told him where to find Eon, even though he said Gary should avoid the area. He still didn't understand how his pokemon had come to this knowledge, but it would do for the moment. He'd go to the source for answers, he decided.

Which was why he was there in the area southwest of the Indigo Plateau, fighting his way through the forest in the dark. There weren't any paths here, not that he'd have been able to stay on one at night. He was heading toward an area where bright fires were burning. He thought it might be Eon's camp. His pokemon had mentioned pokemon gathering around it.

As he got closer he saw what looked like a huge dome, the details obscured by the darkness. It appeared too sharply too be natural. There didn't seem to be any pokemon around, though. Had Ash been right about this being some sort of Rocket trick? The building didn't look like something of theirs either, though, and he didn't see people around. The ground around it was odd too, appearing to have been cleared yet with rocks jutted up at sudden angles and sudden depressions in the ground elsewhere. It was somewhat similar to the kind of disruption pokemon caused in the area around them during a pokemon battle.

He stepped out into the clearing. The fires looked like campfires, but they were unattended. Or very recently abandoned. Had they noticed his approach? He started to walk toward the building, weaving around the holes and rocks.

"You really shouldn't be here," said a girl. Gary spun around to seen an older teen. Her eyes were downcast and she was barely visible in the flickering light.

"What are – I didn't expect to see other people here," Gary said.

"You really shouldn't be here," the girl repeated quietly. She sounded sad. "You should get out of here."

"What about you?" Gary responded. "Shouldn't you-?"

"No I'm already here," the girl said, almost mumbling the words. "But it's not the same thing. Maybe if you leave now you'll make it. If you hurry."

"I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers." When she didn't respond he said, "Eon's here, it's it? If I keep going I'll find it."

"Yeah." The girl brushed a strand of long hair out of her face. She looked up at him a moment. "I did tell you, okay?" she said sadly. "I tried. Please remember that. Don't be mad later."

"I'm not -" He sighed. "I'm going to keep going into that building. I can find Eon in there, right?"

"...I think they already know," the girl said, miserably. "But I thought maybe...Someone's probably waiting for you. What you're doing is new. Maybe that will help."

* * *

Eon was glaring subtly. Ice had either not noticed or was ignoring it, and Eon did not at the moment care which. She still didn't know how they'd convinced the other pokemon. The one standing before her was blatantly human. The movement, the posture, none of it was anything but human. No different from any of the others, whatever their claims. Some minor competence with pokemon attacks and a few cosmetic differences didn't change things.

~ So there's another arrival, ~ Eon explained. ~ Might be a spy. ~

Ice wisely remained silent. Her tail was curled around her legs, the tip tapping the ground by one ankle.

~ You seemed like the best one to handle this, ~ Eon continued, ~ Especially since he likely couldn't understand most of us. Find out what his purpose is and if he's on our side. ~

"He dies if he is or he isn't?"

~ What? ~ Eon said after a beat. She paused another second, trying to figure out what Ice had just said, then decided to just move on. ~ If he's just another trainer, or worse, he is a spy, then he dies. ~ She watched the human carefully. ~ You don't have any objection, of course? ~

The human before her smiled cheerfully, displaying fangs. The expression was all the more disturbing for its utter lack of malice. If it were a pokemon acting so cheery Eon wouldn't have thought anything of it, but – she was beginning to think there was something very wrong here. "Nope," Ice said lightly.

Something very wrong, Eon thought again

* * *

Gary was starting to think he'd made a huge mistake. He'd barely walked in the doorway of the odd building before he'd run into a trio of electabuzz, who had taken his pokeballs and shoved him into a room he was hesitant to call a cell only because it made things seem that much worse.

It was pitch black. The pokemon seemed to have building down well enough, but they didn't have anything resembling electric lights. There were a few torches along the way, spaced too far apart for him to see properly, and if there were any in the room, they were unlit.

He didn't know how long he had waited. The only positive was that it didn't seem like they were going to just kill him, or they wouldn't be going through all this trouble. And he'd seen someone else, after all, so there were other people here. Were they involved in this? This whole thing seemed amazingly well organized for a pokemon, but the pokemon he'd seen all seemed to be acting autonomously. And he knew that pokemon were good learners. Even if he didn't have his grandfather's piles of research on the subject, his own pokemon had made that clear enough. Pokemon adapted. Trained pokemon easily adopted human norms and could understand the complexities of human society to the point of mimicking it. It just usually wasn't important because they didn't act beyond their trainer's orders. If trained pokemon were in charge of this, there was no knowing what to expect.

Finally the door opened. There was the silhouette of a person in the doorway, a torch in one hand for a second, before the figure tossed it into the room. It hit the ground with a shower of embers near Gary's feet. He jumped in surprise to avoid them as the door swung shut.

"H-" he began and found himself pinned to the wall by his throat, with claws digging into his skin. He could barely see his assailant, but what he could make out in the flickering, dying light didn't look like any pokemon he knew. It didn't look like anything recognizable at all. He tried to pull at the claws around his throat without effect.

"Why are you here?" it demanded, sounding as if it didn't care in the slightest. Its voice was flat and unnatural.

"I wanted to talk to Eon."

"Why?"

"To find out what's happening. Why everything – what it's doing. What it means to do."

"But you already know. Eon was clear. You want to know if it's true. And what do you mean to do then?" The claws in his neck tightened. "If it's true?"

"I don't know!"

"Then you're here because?"

"Because I wanted to know what was happening! Why so many pokemon are killing trainers, why it's all happening."

"Your pokemon have already chosen their side. Telling you makes that clear enough." The claws tightened further. Gary could feel a bead of blood trickling down his neck.

"They don't want me dead!" he argued desperately.

"Not important," it told him. "Knowing your pokemon have already chosen. What do you mean to do?"

"I don't know! If they really want to – I don't know!"

"You really should have thought of that," it said, tossing him to the ground. The door opened again and it was gone.

* * *

"He just wanted to talk to you," she remarked lightly. "No intent. Doesn't even understand what's happening." Really that much had been clear from the start, but there wasn't any point in saying so.

~ You're sure, ~ Eon said disbelievingly.

"You don't need to take my word for it. Or you could just kill him anyway." She smiled helpfully. "But that would be inconvenient I suppose. Because of his pokemon. They'd be rather upset. It's funny isn't it that it would have been easier to kill him if he hadn't brought pokemon?"

~ If he's sincere and his pokemon have no grudge, ~ Eon said. She seemed unaware the sentence wasn't finished.

"He'll go the same way as his pokemon," Ice said. "He's that sort. It does go both ways, after all. I think you'd find he'd actually be a valued part of this."

~ Oh? ~ Eon's eyes narrowed. ~ You wouldn't be saying this just to spare him? ~

"I wouldn't want to do that. And there's no point, is there. Because you already can't just kill him. I mean that, it would be helpful to you to keep him here. Haven't you been annoyed at how your recruits overestimate humans? And surely it would validate your arguments, if even they can be convinced?"

Eon nodded slowly. ~ But if I find you're lying... ~

"I don't lie," she said, voice guileless. "If that's all?"

* * *

"Ash, I think maybe Gary was telling the truth," said Misty nervously. Like most of the trainers, they were still staying in Pokemon League accommodations while they waited for the League to put things in order and restart the battles.

"Yeah right! He just wanted me to quit because he was afraid I would beat him!" snapped Ash. He'd been tense since the attack, and the rumors floating around didn't help.

"He just dropped out," Brock said quietly. "It was announced this morning."


	9. Trial

**CHAPTER NINE: THE TRIAL**

"You don't think you can win, do you?"

Jeanette Fisher merely smiled and tossed her pokeball into the air. AJ sneered at her.

"Look girlie, my sandshrew can pretty much clean the clock of any pokemon in yer collection, so don't bother with the arrogance, 'kay?"

"It's not arrogance," she said. "Arrogance is when people mock Bellsprout because he _looks_ weak. They never consider the fact that his looks and skill are two entirely different things. And that's how we beat them so easily."

"Yeah, believe that if ya want. GO SANDSHREW!"

"GO BELLSPROUT!"

The two pokemon materialised, Bellsprout going into a karate-fighting stance. AJ smirked.

"Sandshrew, Slash attack!"

Bellsprout allowed the rodent to attack and then, the claws inches from his stem, he grabbed its arm and tossed it over his shoulder, before spinning round and using Slam to keep it from getting up.

"Hey!" AJ snarled. "You're not commanding it!"

"My pokemon can strategise and battle without my assistance," she said. "They wouldn't be very good fighters if they couldn't, now would they? Oh, and your sandshrew is in a headlock."

"WHAT?!"

Bellsprout slackened his hold somewhat and bent his head down towards Sandshrew's. {Why don't you fight back?} he asked the sandshrew.

{AJ hadn't told me to.}

{So? You can fight without his orders, can't you?}

{No. He'll get angry again.}

{_What?_}

"Sandshrew! Slash again!"

Sandshrew twisted and broke the hold, unbalancing Bellsprout before scoring three fine cuts on his stem. The plant grunted and fired Razor Leaf at his opponent's legs. The rodent squealed and fell down. Bellsprout moved in for a quick finisher-

Without warning, a venomoth swooped down, spraying the trainers with Sleep Powder. They collapsed without even noticing it was there. The pokemon looked up, confused.

"Hi!" it called down. "Need a lift?"

Understanding dawned on Bellsprout. "One of Eon's?"

"Yep."

"Huh. She's letting humans live then?"

"Not exactly," said the moth. "These two are actually part of… an experiment…"

Anthony yawned and sat back to watch his pokemon train. He was a bit tired but Hitmonchan and Primeape were still fighting fit. Hitmonchan was working out to the best of his ability, a real go-getter. Primeape… well, he was coasting. Anthony found this annoying; this pokemon had won the P1 two years back! It beat Giant's Hitmonlee! But ever since Ash had passed it on to Anthony, it seemed… preoccupied. Upset about something.

It couldn't be about being given to him. pokemon didn't think like that; _everyone_ knew that. That primeape had better shape up soon; it had failed in Round 1 of the last two P1's and if it wouldn't make an effort, he was giving it away.

There was a knock on the door. He sighed.

"Look, I'm busy!"

If it was his wife or daughter again… Didn't they realise this work was important? Why'd they always want him at home so-

He opened the door and was rewarded by a fast-moving brick wall. The golem watched him fall, picked him up and called out to the fighting pokemon, "you coming or what?"

Giselle walked through the corridors of Pokemon Tech, bored out of her skull. Exams were over and now her time here was all over bar the graduating ceremony. So where to from here? She'd already got the qualifications for League Champion. She could be a Breeder, or a Gym Leader, or stay on as a teacher (BLEURGH!), or go out as a road trainer, or just go home and give up pokemon. After all, this place has given her good enough qualifications for most well-paid jobs.

Probably go home and become an executive. She had the drive and the contacts; it'd be sad to get rid of Cubone but she wasn't really going to need-

Peace sleep tired sleeeeep…

The drowzee picked up her sleeping body, checked the corridor to make sure no one had seen and then teleported away.

***

Team Rocket was pissed. After the destruction of the Johto base, all Rockets had been ordered to go to ground and wait for further instructions. Which meant they'd had to trek _seven miles_ to get to the nearest TR cabin. Which the previous inhabitants had refused to clean, possibly ever since the Eocene epoch.

The worst thing about it was that the cabin was really quite defenceless if anyone chose to attack. And there was always that niggling little fear that, one night, Eon would choose to attack. Personally.

Meowth didn't have that fear. That would imply there was some doubt. He _knew_ Eon would send someone for him, that he was going to die. It was cold, immutable fact. A lot of pokemon hated him for his association with Team Rocket, it was only a matter of time before- What would he even do to fight back?

Arbok and Weezing noticed this, and slithered up.

"I know what you're thinking," said Weezing. "But there is a chance-"

"There isn't."

BAM

Meowth paled. "Ngh…"

BAM

"Meowth, answer the door!" called Jessie.

"You can make it if you run," whispered Weezing.

"He can't," said Arbok. "That's a scyther outside."

Meowth was more frightened than he'd ever been in his life. But he had no choice. If he stayed in here, the scyther would come in after him. And then it would notice Jessie and James. And they would die. And it would be his fault.

He opened the door.

"Here I am. Do what ya must."

The scyther looked at him and then knocked him out. He picked the cat up and flew away. James looked out of the window to see who was calling and saw this.

"What the hell?! Some scyther's just catnapped Meowth!"

"What?!" Jessie bounded over, bazooka in hand. "Whoever sent that walking lawnmower has messed with the wrong Rockets-"

{Eon sent it,} said Arbok. {He surrendered this so you'd be kept out of danger. Try to get Meowth back and you _will get killed_. You have to let it go.}

Jessie cocked her weapon. "Screw _that_. We never turn our back on a team-mate in trouble. We're getting him back."

***

Gary sat on his cell, tapping on the walls and humming to himself out of sheer boredom. He glanced up as Wildfire came over.

"We have some new cellmates for you," she said. As she talked, a group of Nidoking entered and chucked Jeanette, AJ, Anthony, Giselle, and Meowth into the cell. Gary blinked in surprise.

"What's going on?"

"You're all going to be put on trial." She looked right into his eyes and said, "Ice's idea. Eon was all in favour of killing you on the spot. Lucky for you, Mewtwo decided to back the trial; he said this would do the pokemon good, seeing what they were up against, quelling those among the group who doubted our cause." She sighed. "I hope you're found innocent or something," she said in all sincerity. "I don't need to explain what the penalty for being guilty is."

AJ was thrust into the makeshift stocks and looked around. He was in some kind of amphitheatre; all around him were pokemon, watching with disgust and hatred. A few strange looking pokemon, mutants he guessed, were over on one side, and his pokemon sat on the other.

_Why aren't they attacking?_ He thought. _Why don't they damn well rescue me already?!_

~We shall see.~ Eon looked over at Ice. ~Will the court recognise Ice, the prosecutor?~ She'd have preferred to have a pokemon as prosecutor, but they would all have been too emotional, too obviously biased. The experiment wouldn't have worked.

Ice stepped forward. "AJ Winters. You stand accused of war crimes; enslavement, abuse of pokemon, conspiracy with enslavers and with intent of slavery, and forcing pokemon to fight pokemon. How do you plead?"

"What the hell?! Not guilty!"

"Do I get a lawyer?" muttered AJ.

"No," said Ice. "You defend yourself in this court. Now, AJ, I would like to know this; why do you capture pokemon?"

None of this made sense. It couldn't be happening. That question – he was being asked something as basic as that?

"That's what they're _there_ for! To be trained as strong fighters, to reach their potential!"

"Are you a strong fighter? Have you reached your potential?"

"Yes!"

"Now, we have a list of the training procedures your pokemon went through back when you were running an amateur Gym." Ice looked down at her list and read out: "Up at 5 AM for an obstacle course and exercise. No feeding until 7 AM. Three hour-long sparring sessions with the other pokemon, anything goes and all-against-all." She glared at him. "No Potions allowed until a session is finished, so a pokemon can battle 5 others, equally strong, without anything to heal wounds it sustains. Then there's more exercise and the final feeding at 7 PM. Then bed. This routine has changed now; more emphasis on the combat and, of course, you fight more trainers. No Potions are allowed until the end of the day. Is this true?"

"Yeah."

"Do you go through this procedure?"

AJ blinked in surprise. "No," he said. "Why should I?"

"Surely if you are willing to put pokemon through it, it's safe for you. And shouldn't a good trainer do that?"

"No! Look, the training would pretty much kill me. pokemon can take more stress-"

"And this is why you allow them to go through incredible pain, without rest, while you just watch?" She turned on him, eyes boring through his skull and searing at his mind. "Is this the action of a good leader, or friend to his pokemon?"

"You're not letting- Where do you damn well get off with this?!" He was scared and he was confused and the fundamentals of existence were being picked at, and he turned to rage to protect him. "You have no damn right to tell me I'm not Sandshrew's friend just because of- of a gym regimen! Ask him yourself!"

Ice nodded slightly. "No offence meant," she said in a tone that suggested offence was meant. "Prosecution calls Sandshrew to the witness stand."

The little rodent crept over, looking at AJ fearfully.

"Now, Sandshrew, what is your view on the training? And you can tell the truth."

It looked at her, then at AJ, then over at Eon and finally, in a timid whisper, {I hate it. It's tiring and it hurts. It always hurts. If we don't tow the line or aren't doing well enough, then we just get _more_. He gets angry and there's no food or potion until we do what we're told and-} It turned its head away so it wouldn't have to look at its trainer. {He doesn't mean- he- It's not done out of malice, but it's still-}

"No further questions. Your closing argument?"

"This is taking the piss! You can't…" It hit him that he was going to die and Sandshrew wouldn't save him. "You can't, you don't have the right, you can't declare me guilty just for training-"

~We can't declare you guilty for abusing pokemon?~ snapped Eon. ~With that statement, you have proven yourself an unfit trainer. And unfit for life as well. Your thoughts, jury?~

As one, the pokemon roared "GUILTY!".

"Gary Oak, you stand accused of war crime; enslavement, abuse of pokemon, conspiracy with enslavers and with intent of slavery, and forcing pokemon to fight pokemon. How do you plead?"

Gary looked around, nervously. He finally voiced not guilty, but very hesitatingly. He was unsure himself, unsure of anything that was going on. Everything he thought he knew about his world had been stripped away when he'd found out Arcanine wanted to kill people.

"Gary Oak, you felt the need to enter our camp. Why was this?"

"I-I wanted to find out what was going on."

Ice stared at him with contempt. "What did you _think_ was going on?"

Gary took a deep breath.

"I thought that a group of trainers had done something really horrible to pokemon," he said. "Something bad enough for them to attack humans. I don't what this group did, but I'm not surprised by whatever it is. There are trainers who should _never_ have gotten their licenses and pokeballs; I'd be a fool to think otherwise. I've _seen_ them. Every single Tamer, for instance. They're bastards, pure and simple.

"And I wanted to know what they were doing, so I could help you stop it. Because my pokemon are my friends, my dearest friends. Humans leave, and turn on you, all for stupid reasons. pokemon don't. And if someone is hurting pokemon bad enough for them to do all this," he said, waving his arm across the room, "then I have to help stop it."

Ice was silent. She turned to Eon.

Eon hadn't expected an answer like that. ~This is how you feel, is it? And do you want to know what this group did that was so awful?~

"Yes."

~First,~ she said, ~the group is _every trainer on the planet_. And the crime is training itself.~

Gary was shocked. "That can't be right-"

~ All training is, all it ever will be, is an excuse for humans to enslave living, _sentient _creatures. You capture living creatures and order them to fight, and then say that this is beneficial. Why? How is this moral? How does this make you their "friends"?~

Gary opened and shut his mouth, trying to find words. He couldn't. It had all seemed simple and logical up until now, something never questioned. But why had he never questioned it? And Eon voiced it and it sounded wrong, hideous, but then he thought of Arcanine and he thought of Mandy's Golbat and he remembered so many things he'd seen while training that seemed unnecessary or brutal or wrong.

And the whole thing just seemed so obvious.

"I… don't know." He looked pleadingly at his pokemon.

Umbreon stepped forward. {To be fair, he is a better trainer than most, more considerate and in touch with us. But I cannot deny that he never saw that we wanted freedom, or that he never truly treated us as equals. I do not hate him, but I know he is guilty.} He lowered his head. {I'm sorry, Gary.}

Gary couldn't meet any of the pokemon in the eye. "So, that's the way it is," he said in a hollow voice. "I called them my friends while I did all this to them." He began to tear up. "Fine. I'm guilty. Definitely. Do what you must. Do it. Because after what I've done and after what my pokemon have… said… I-I don't want to continue living. Just do what you must."

Eon looked at him for a long time, betraying no expression. She finally turned to the jury, who voiced no cries of guilty or innocence. They didn't know quite how to respond to this. Arrogance, denial, that had been expected, but not surrender.

~Return this one to the cell. We will figure out his sentence later.~

***

"… how do you plead?"

"Not guilty," said Giselle. She was looking a little scared but was determined not to show it. "Now, what is this all about?!"

"What this is about is that you are on trial for war crimes, as I just recited," said Ice coolly. "Now, we have interviewed Cubone, who informs us that you are quite the academic. You have very impressive skills and can get many a good job."

"I plan to be an executive or lawyer or something like that," said Giselle.

"What about your pokemon?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I'd have to give them away or release them, of course. I like them and all, but they wouldn't do me much good and I wouldn't have the time to look after them."

"Does Cubone and Graveller have a choice in this?"

"What?"

"I'll take that as a 'no'", said Ice. She paused for a minute. "You have just said you are willing to abandon your pokemon. Very shocking behaviour for a trainer, isn't it?"

"_Abandon?!_ NO! I'm releasing them!"

"But you don't give them a choice," pressed Ice. "Let's not try to avoid blame here. If a pokemon is given the choice between freedom and captivity, that is releasing. If you just leave it somewhere and walk away, you are abandoning it. There is a big difference, and it is all tied up in choice and how worthy you perceive your pokemon as being. You don't appear to think much of them."

Giselle tried to counter this, but even to her ears her arguments sounded feeble and phoney. They certainly sounded like this to her pokemon; they refused to look at her. Eventually, she was pronounced guilty.

Ice was impressed. Jeanette was actually managing to look _her_ in the eye for more than a few seconds without blinking. And then there was her calm and detached manner…

"I want to be perfectly clear here," she said. "When you mention these charges, what are you referring to?"

"Your capturing and training of pokemon," said Ice.

She gave this some thought, before replying: "What an interesting viewpoint…In that case, I am guilty as charged."

"You admit your guilt before this court. Can you explain why you committed these crimes?"

"I believed training was a good thing. I believed it strengthened both us and the pokemon. And I've always been fascinated with pokemon of the forests; I grew up near the Safari Zone, you see." She looked over at her three pokemon. "I would like to hear from them, please. I want to know if these activities are as bad as you say."

Bellsprout stepped forward.

{Yes they are,} he said. {Trainers can show compassion, but very few are ever treating us as equals. However, I would like to say that Jeanette _does_ treat us as equals.}

There was a sharp intake of breath from all in the court. That hadn't gone down well.

{It's true. She puts us through tough training practises, but none she wouldn't do herself. She trains us in human fighting styles to give us an edge, she tries to avoid feeding us pokechow-" and here every pokemon made a noise of disgust, {-and she encourages us to think for ourselves in battle.}

Jeanette nodded. "I was brought up to not look down on others, and to be honourable in combat. Granted, my parents never intended these lessons to be used in pokemon battles, but I didn't see why they should be any different. I am, however, truly sorry for any harm or crime caused by me to any pokemon."

Ice and Eon looked at each other, then at the jury. They were bewildered by this. The human was faintly unnerving, sounding too detached and acting like this was just a hypothetical situation and not life-or-death. Her tone of voice was too neutral.

The jury voiced innocent; the first yet. Jeanette bowed and returned to her cell until the trial was over.

~That wasn't meant to happen!~ hissed Eon.

~Do not worry,~ said Mewtwo. ~This may be a setback; on the other hand, we could turn it to our advantage.~

~How do you mean?~

~I won't say yet. Let's wait until the trial ends, shall we?~

Anthony was in the stocks now, and he was so far surviving just by sheer bloody mindedness. So far Ice couldn't break this, and the jury was being swayed in his favour. They were still reeling from Jeanette, and Hitmonchan was seriously backing the human up. Eon was getting peeved.

Then Primeape was called up and it went to hell.

"Primeape, is this man as noble as Hitmonchan paints him?"

Primeape didn't answer for a long time, and when he did, it was a whisper. But then he said it again, and everyone heard it.

"No!"

"What are you talking about?" growled Hitmonchan.

"You don't see it, but I do! He doesn't care for us, not truly! He just cares about his precious P1 trophy!" Primeape was beginning to cry, hot and angry tears that enflamed his eyes. "I was _abandoned_. Dumped on him because he was able to smooth-talk my old trainer into thinking it would be, ha, _good_ for me! Good for me to be left with a stranger in the middle of nowhere! But all Anthony cared about was having a strong pokemon so he could win! He never took the time to bond with me, to find out why I was upset; he just ordered me to train! Oh, he never actually _abused_ me. He just made me feel like a- a_ thing_."

"You're full of crap," said Hitmonchan. "He makes us stronger, he treats us well, he puts all his effort into us; what's the problem?"

"The problem is that _you_ have_ no mind beyond fighting, you idiotic bastard!_" screamed Primeape. "You'd support anyone if you had the opportunity to have a good fight! You know, you _know_, that he abandons his own _family_ to train us. And family should come first! Anyone who abandons a _child_ like that is not a good man, or a good trainer." He glared at Hitmonchan with utter hatred. "But you are too blind to see that as long as you get to hit things. I _hate_ being the same Element as you."

And thus the jury found Anthony guilty. Hitmonchan tried to save him, but was felled by a quick Hypnosis by Mewtwo.

Meowth sat, alone and abandoned, in the court. The pokemon glared at him with undisguised hatred.

"How do you plead?"

"I'm guilty," he muttered. "I know I am. Ya think I don't know what I'm doin'? Just kill me already. Don't bother draggin' dis out."

~As you wish,~ said Eon. ~I sentence you to executio-~

The sentence was adjourned on account of the roof exploding.

Jessie and James dropped down, bazookas at hand.

"RIGHT!" snarled Jessie. "This is how it works. We are taking Meowth outta here right now and if you get in the way, YOU GET SHRAPNEL UP YER ARSE!"

"I think that would be a stronger threat it they didn't outnumber us by umpteen-zillion to one, Jess!"

"Yeah, well, they don't have so many that they had anyone on guard while this trial was going on…"

Eon's voice was calm, far calmer than it had any right to be. ~You dare to break in here? You can be killed in seconds without getting to fire a single shot, humans.~

"Do you really want to test that?"

~Why is the traitor any concern of yours?~

"That 'traitor' is our mate, bitch!" Jessie swivelled the bazooka to Eon and grinned. "Course, if you _want_ to annoy the people with the _big guns_…"

Eon's eyes glowed just briefly, and the guns crumbled to dust in the Rocket's hands.

"Oh cock." Jessie clenched her fists. "Alright, just get me a broken bottle and it'll just be like Friday Night down the Sunny Town youth club…"

"The ones we always lost?"

Eon began laughing. ~Hand-to-hand against all of us?! You amuse me. This will not stave off your execution.~

"Guys, get out of it!" said Meowth. "You'll get squished!"

"We don't leave a man behind! Even if that man's actually a cat, or whatever, but the principle's…" James trailed off, rapidly losing the ability to ignore the sheer terror of the situation by random babbling, noticing the world wasn't going away because he mentally screamed at it to leave him alone.

"Meowth's our friend and we're not leaving him," said Jessie, her voice dull and resigned.

~You truly believe that your pokemon are friends? You, agents of Team Rocket? You imprison them and dominate them and treat them like objects to be manipulated for your own personal desires of power-"

"SHUT UP!" James' face was drawn with fury. "Just shut UP."

~Truth hurts, does it? Having to realise that you treat pokemon that way?~

"No," said James quietly. "You're wrong. I would never treat any creature like that. Not after-"

~After what?~ Eon frowned again and decided to find out. And she went inside James' mind.

_A small boy, ordered and dominated. His personality and creativity smothered, made to fit in with other's ideals. A mere slave to them, though they claim it is for his benefit. A demon with a whip, telling him to behave properly and hurting him if he doesn't bow to her will. Pain, and suffering, and captivity…_

Eon withdrew and stared at James in what might have been pity. ~I see,~ she said quietly. ~The abused becomes the abuser, though he'd wish otherwise. Tragic.~

James stared in anger at her, and then horror, and finally through tears as he collapsed to the floor.

"_No!_ You're wrong! I'm not like them. I'm not." He covered his face and wailed. "_I don't want to be like them!_ I love Weezing and even Victreebel, I don't wanna hurt them, I don't wanna turn out like that… I don't wanna… I don't … _Gng_…"

Jessie and Meowth just stood there as he collapsed, unsure of what to do.

Eon watched and sighed.

~Meowth is excused. I sensed, in the boy's memories, that the three of them have suffered. We are here to give the suffering freedom. Place them in the cells and I'll deal with them personally.~

Eon, Mewtwo, Mixeon and Wildfire went down to the cells once the jury had left. Inside were the five survivors – those that they couldn't declare guilty in public because of how it would look in front of the masses.

And now they had to deal with them.

How? They might not deserve death and they were sincere about willing to cease training, but this would be ammunition for dissenters…

Wildfire unlocked the door.

~Greetings,~ said Eon to the prisoners. ~The charges against you all have been dropped for extenuating circumstances. You are free to go now. Just don't try to go against us.~

"Good," said Gary. He stood up, his form tensed. "Just one problem."

~Oh?~

"I'm not going. I'm staying here to help you in your struggle."

The pokemon stared in shock.

"I truly want to be friends with my pokemon," he continued. "I want to make amends for the crimes I committed. I want to fight for the downtrodden. I may not be pokemon, but I will fight alongside them, and against the pokemon League."

"And I will too," said Jeanette. "My pokemon want to join. And without them, what will I do? I go where they go, and I won't abandon them. And this cause is more honourable than the League."

Meowth looked up and sighed. "I've done some bad stuff. I won't deny it. But I do want ta redeem myself. I've watched pokemon be locked up and abused, sometimes thanks ta me, and I'm sick of it. I want ta fight."

"Me too," said James. "And any reason I have to do so… It's near enough to theirs."

"And I'm not leaving them," said Jessie.

Eon wasn't sure how to respond.

Mewtwo quickly sent a private message into Eon's mind. ~We need the manpower and they can give us inside information. And this will crush all the dissidents; humans have been found who don't abuse their pokemon and realise training is wrong, _and wish to join us_. A huge victory for our side, methinks.~

Eon slowly nodded. It made tactical sense.

She then turned to the five of them and said, ~ Welcome, brothers. Welcome to the fight for freedom.~

This way she didn't have to let them go and then have them quietly assassinated when they were out of sight of the base.


	10. Demonstrations

Already, Eon had found, her army was stratifying into groups. There were those who sought her out and those content to simply be there, those who came alone and joined her alone, and those who came together to fight together. Those she could speak with, and those she could only speak to.

Around her now were those mostly of the first group. She knew some of them, recognized others. Shine, a striking green espeon, stood near to Cinceon, his forked tail waving slightly from side to side. He was one of the few pokemon that understood, like she did, of how important it was to strike hard and mercilessly against the humans, of what the true danger was. Near was taciturn Memory, the dragonite's eyes hard and determined. Between them was the coiled arbok Monev. An undersized houndoom was behind them, Nightflame, Eon recalled. There was an umbreon off to the side, looking half-familiar, who she couldn't quite place, and an onix called Slate lay in the back, tolerating a small spearow that perched on his head. There were new faces – her army grew by the hour, and so she was not surprised to see an unfamiliar pair of raticate or any of the others.

She laid out for them the next attack, the one they had all been waiting for. Her first attack had been an announcement, and the second two had been setup. This marked the beginning of the true war, the end of the human's era.

A decisive strike that was as symbolic as effective. She had to pause several times while they shouted in excited support.

~ Additionally, ~ she told them, with a nod to the small pile of pokeballs that lay by Mixeon's forepaws, ~ there are some issues to deal with. We must decide what to do with the surviving Dark Evolutions we tool from the Team Rocket base. They are exceedingly- ~

"I'll handle this one," said Ice, who Eon could have _sworn_ was not there a second ago, stepping forward enough to grab a pokeball, then moving back into the crowd and vanishing.

But she didn't have time to deal with that. She returned her attention to the crowd before her as they tried to decide what to do with the rest.

It was only after she finished dividing them up to volunteering pokemon who thought they were strong enough to prevent any violence that Eon realized which pokeball the human had taken.

***

The surviving humans and one talking meowth had near unanimously decided to stay put. They were together in one of the rooms of the odd building.

Gary had been the only one who wasn't willing to just wait. He went out.

The looks he got from the pokemon varied, but even one murderous glare was enough to make him seriously consider if this was a smart idea, and there were a lot more than one.

And yet, the alternative was waiting. He didn't head back.

There were a lot of pokemon there. The only time he'd ever seen so many kinds of pokemon mixing together like this had been in some of the larger pokemon centers before some big tournament. His eyes kept trying to pick out trainers amid the groups. Was this really natural behavior? He didn't remember ever hearing about mixed groups in the wild. There were a number of pokemon that would adopt related species, houndour and growlithe being best known for intermixing, but that rarely extended to more than two or three types.

Each time he found answers, he only stumbled onto something new that didn't make sense. He had found out what the pokemon were doing and why, but he only came to wonder at the how. He didn't have the sense that unraveling the whole thing would solve it yet it didn't stop him from still being curious.

Further away from the main building new, smaller structures seemed like they were in construction, as were simpler things that looked like ordinary caves. A group of golduck were discussing something energetically by the edge of a large pond, and one was talking with a group of rattata and raticate, gesturing at the area nearby. As Gary watched, the raticate began burrowing into the ground, tearing through the soil and into the bedrock in minutes. Were they planning to expand the pond?

Unsettled, he continued on. His grandfather's research had never even hinted at something like this. Pokemon didn't modify their surroundings, not on a large scale. That was what everyone believed. Either this was something they'd missed in all their years of research, or these pokemons' behavior was different in more fundamental ways than just their obvious goals.

He shook his head slightly, not knowing what to make of it.

He saw a human figure further on, sitting perched on the top of one of the sheer sided rocks that jutted up eight or nine feet. He hurried over. "Wildfire!" he called.

She visibly jumped in surprise, falling off. The two huge wings on her back flared reflectively as she caught her balance, then pulled back tightly as she landed as if she was trying to minimize their notice. For a second she was looking at him with startled golden eyes, then she quickly looked down, moving a step back.

"You're out," she said. She hadn't been around since the group had been acquitted.

"Yeah, I am." He gestured toward her with one hand. "Those are what you meant by it not being the same thing? It's why they accept you."

The charizard wings tightened further. "Yes – no, it's-" she started to say. "I don't know. Because Ice made them like us."

"She didn't seem interested in doing that for us," Gary said.

"It's not the same thing! You guys came here, we didn't have anything to do with that!" She was staring at him fiercely. "It was her idea they didn't kill you!"

"Sorry." Gary remembered her telling them it had been Ice suggesting the trial, but after what had happened... "So we should be thanking her, then? Her and..."

"Mewtwo. Well Mewtwo was going along with – but no, no, that's a bad idea. I mean you'll just get us in trouble with Eon. At least I think that's bad. And she doesn't want to deal with you guys at all anyway. I don't even know what she was doing."

Abruptly Gary said, "So, you weren't involved."

She ducked her head. "Sorry. It wouldn't have helped. I'd have just made things worse. I did tell you, though."

"If I'd turned around and run, would I have made it out?"

She didn't answer.

"They'd just have killed me."

"They might not have," she said lamely.

Gary was silent a moment. "Well, then, you could help now. How do we convince the pokemon we're really on their side?"

"I don't know. Aren't you now?"

"I mean like you." He waved a hand toward her again, toward the pokeball at her waist. "You've still got a pokemon. They're letting you carry one around. I haven't even seen my pokemon since the trial."

"Huh? Oh, no, this is-" She pulled the pokeball off her belt and opened it. "See? It's empty. She said it's good to have it where people can see, because then someone expects Star to be here and not elsewhere. And if – if something happens – if something happens - It's really good to have it."

"That was Ice? Who told you?"

"Yeah."

"And the third one?"

"The third one?"

"The third one of you guys. It is one of you, isn't it? The thing I met after I talked to you."

Wildfire shook her head. "No, there isn't. That was probably Ice."

"No, it was a monster."

"Yeah, it was probably Ice." Wildfire wasn't meeting his eyes, as if she was lying. "She's not – um – she's not – nice."

***

"Sure!"

~ Please. Stop. That, ~ Mewtwo ground out. ~ It's creepy. ~

Ice smiled cheerfully. "I'm sorry. Would you like me to refuse to help you? Because I could if you'd feel better about that-"

~ No, really. Stop it. It's like watching someone with a grenade launcher laughing. I don't know what you're trying to convince Eon of, but you could at least drop the act when she's gone. ~

She giggled.

~ You're just lost it. You're stuck like that, aren't you? ~

"You're the one making demands of me," she said, sounding infuriatingly cheerful about all of it. "You're just not a very good actor and you'd be acting more surprised when I'm around Eon. So just avoid me rather than asking me to find you a long detailed list of stuff in numerous hidden laboratories at great personal risk and then complaining when I agree."

~ I could go explain this whole thing to Eon. ~

"You can't explain anything because you don't know why. All you can tell her is I'm being cheerful and helpful and some ramblings about how this is suspicious, discrediting you, who was so willing to agree about my trustworthiness earlier. Oh yes, and you'd have to explain why you didn't warn her earlier." She smiled, looking friendly and harmless. "Besides, isn't it foolish to be threatening someone who agreed to help you?"

~ You hate Giovanni as much as I do. You'd have gone and done something like this soon. You did say something about them usually assuming you're dead? ~

"No, right now Giovanni actually needs me, so I'm still considered alive. You probably don't see why it's amusing, but it really is. Anyway, they're trying to figure out where I am. It's really funny."

~ I'll take your word for it. Then you're able to get all this without getting noticed? ~

"Sure!"

~ Are you ever going to stop that? ~

"In a little while, once the humans have been here a little longer." She still sounded unnervingly happy. "Then I stop convincing Eon I'm human and we distribute things among the six of us. Aren't you glad you helped out with that? So, this is all? It's more annoying if I have to do this twice because you forgot something."

Mewtwo nodded. ~ It won't be a problem. I'm sure I'll be able to work out anything missing on my own. ~

"Then I'll be going. You have to go help on that showy stuff about now, don't you?"

***

The festivities of the Pokemon League Tournament were in full swing. There was no suggestion anyone's spirits had been dampened, that any of the celebration and excitement was toned down. If anything there was an exaggerated cast to the whole affair. Almost forced, not that anyone would have said it aloud.

Almost no mention is made of the way the tournament structure had to be redrawn significantly. Those who did dismissed it, saying that only two years ago there'd been a withdrawal by a trainer who'd gotten this far and that it wasn't unheard of for trainers to drop out. No one still there thinks about how many years back you'd have to go to find a time when this many trainers left. One mentions to a friend that this isn't unprecedented, though – there as another time when even more trainers quit, so many the tournament that year was canceled. He doesn't mention it was right before one of the greatest wars in their history. Perhaps he wasn't interested in checking that closely.

The crowd to watch the opening battles is still enormous. The cameras won't find empty spaces. Only those in the stands can notice any small difference, the way they're not packed together so tightly, how everyone had more space. Some of them notice also new faces that weren't there before, and that familiar faces are missing. It's said some people sold their tickets, but no one's really talking about that.

If either of the trainers walking onto the field feel nervous, though, it's the single-minded nervousness of their upcoming battle. One is eleven, the other thirteen. This is the moment they've dreamed about all their lives. To be here, to fight, to win. To eventually make it to the end and be crowned the victor. They're ready to begin.

But before that, some mention must be made of another change. Although no one will talk about it, there is a tinge of hysteria in the air these days. There are always copycats after something happens, pathetic people who grasp at some new event for unfathomable reasons. Entering the stadium today meant checking your pokeballs at the door. Just in case anyone felt like creating another panic after seeing the first one. It's not an unreasonable request – already, two trainers have done something like that. It's weakmindedness, insanity, really not that different than what happens sometimes after a dramatic Team Rocket attack. It's understandable.

But it means there are only twelve pokemon in the stadium at the moment. It would have been only six, but they've been bumped up to the next stage of the tournament after so many forfeits. Later there's some debate around this point.

They release their pokemon and shout their orders.

In the long moment that the nidorino and onix stand there, ignoring the orders, ignoring their trainers as if they aren't even there, there's a flash of panic.

It's justified a moment later as a number of psychics elsewhere manage their mass teleport without a hitch.

And then it's just a slaughter.


	11. Pewter

**CHAPTER ELEVEN: PEWTER**

"…disaster of great magnitude..."

"…greatest terrorist attack in recent memory…"

"…conservative estimates are that over two thousand are dead…"

"…all four stadiums completely levelled…"

"…pokemon rampaged through the streets…"

"…Indigo Plateau is effectively destroyed…"

"…Pokemon League shattered…"

"…declaration of war on the entire human race…"

The media frenzy was intense. The government and Pokemon League had been telling the people that there was nothing to be worried about, that the pokemon attacks were just random flukes.

Then Eon teleported in personally with a small force of her strongest generals. Then they demolished most of Indigo Plateau and killed up to 3000 people in the process. Then it was found that half of the Kanto League heads were among the dead.

Reports were already coming in that several forests and cave systems had become no-go areas for humans. Several rural towns were being cut off entirely. High-ranking civilian politicians of all the League nations had been evacuated to an undisclosed Whirl Island, guarded by the cream of the Johto Navy. The military was on a full alert and troops were mobilising to the major cities.

The surviving members of the League heads were gathered together- Sabrina, the "Sensational Sisters", Lance, Agatha, Giovanni, and Surge. A few of the Johto and Orange Island Gym Leaders were there as delegates; Rudy, Falkner, Bugsy and Pryce.

"What, exactly, do we have planned?" asked Giovanni.

"And can we make sure this doesn't happen to the other two Leagues?" spoke up Bugsy.

"How should _we_ know?" Lance ran his fingers through his hair. "We hadn't expected something like this. Not even from Team Rocket. And speaking of which, if they decided to take advantage of the situation-"

"Team Rocket will be preoccupied by Eon and her cronies the same as us," said Giovanni. "We won't need to worry about them."

Sabrina looked right at him. "Oh, won't we?" she said quietly.

Giovanni nearly tensed, but managed to keep control. "At this point, Team Rocket are extremely irrelevant – they never _atomised_ part of Indigo Plateau. In one sudden strike, we've been crippled. Now, I propose we begin using Dark Evolutions-"

"Out of the question," said Falkner. "They're unreliable and extremely vicious. How do we know they won't just attack us?"

"They won't, not when other pokemon are more fun to fight. They're too… disturbed to join Eon. We have buildings full of them, confiscated off trainers and captured Rockets." _And my vast supplies, of course, but I'm not telling you about THAT_. "Add this to the military forces and pokemon remaining loyal to us, and we will have a good chance of defending ourselves."

"You're assuming that there w_ill_ be pokemon remaining loyal, that Eon can't… do something to them like she has to others. We need to take countermeasures to keep our pokemon on our side."

"Perhaps," said Agatha, "we should try a different approach. Talk to Eon, say we want to talk peace terms."

"You want us to negotiate with terrorists and mass-murders?!"

"We'll be playing for time, Surge. At the least, it'll give us some time to organise – we may even be able to find something out about her operations. Currently, she's got the upper hand and we're just reacting: we need to have the chance to turn that around before something worse happens."

***

The pokemon were celebrating, and this was going on all over the Indigo Region; Kanto, Orange Islands, Johto… All were celebrating this victory. Even those imprisoned in pokeballs celebrated, seeing this as a sign of their upcoming liberation. Right here, Scar, Star, Lash and Memory celebrated by firing Hyper Beams and Flamethrowers into the sky. Team Rocket had already collapsed from drunkenness.

Eon surveyed her troops and smiled. The sight of so many pokemon so happy reminded her of why she was fighting. And, the gods willing, someday it would always be like this…

~We've achieved a great victory!~ she called out. ~ But we have a greater battle coming up, one that will take much planning…~

All eyes were upon her now. She took a deep breath.

~Our next target is Pewter City.~

***

_One week later.  
_  
Pewter City was, like all Kanto cities now, guarded by a wall of tanks and missile launchers. The soldiers were armed and ready to shell Viridian Forest at a moments notice. They didn't care how strong the pokemon were, they wouldn't be getting through this much firepower.

Behind the lines, soldiers and armoured vehicles prowled the streets alongside Special Branch police, and the people of Pewter tried to tell themselves this made them feel safer.

In their pokeballs, the pokemon just waited.

***

Bludgeon, a gnarled and experienced scyther, peered out of the undergrowth and surveyed the defences. He turned to group of soldiers, and then to Lash in the hope of assurance. The gyarados just nodded.

{OK, is everyone in position?} he asked. {Drilling teams? Air force? Blast front teams?}

A quick check revealed all were ready. Bludgeon listened and took a deep breath.

This was it, oh hell, this was gonna go wrong under his watch everyone in his team was going to die…

{ATTACK!}

Projectiles tore out of the forest and tore through the military. Soldiers screamed as they were cleaved in two by Razor Leaf and vehicles exploded into shrapnel. There was only a brief second of confusion before orders and training kicked it, and they began to fire back and the forest front erupted into flame.

The pokemon strafed constantly, trying to dodge bullet and rocket and shell, as many failing as succeeding. Bludgeon and Slate continued to lead their sub-groups on and where they failed, Lash succeeded – the pokemon hadn't faced this level of human resistance before and many of the weaker ones wanted to break rank after the first shells hit, but Lash kept them fighting, his roared orders and charisma and sheer hate of humanity keeping them going.

Here, a pinsir's head exploded into a spray. There, a pikachu's small height allowed it to avoid being hit as it blasted out Thunder Waves. A bellossom swore and screamed from its wounds. A charmeleon screamed encouragement to a frightened raticate. A Hyper Beam vaporised a tank and Lash roared in triumph.

The humans had the advantage for a few minutes, until the aerial swarm deployed.

In one co-ordinated movement, the forest erupted and a horde of flying pokemon – butterfree, beedrill, fearow, pidgeotto – rocketed out, each one carrying another pokemon on its back, one with a long-range attack. They flew over the battle and towards the human ranks, and fire rained down on them.

Another tank went up in flames. Lash smirked and turned round.

{Situation?}

{Crap!} cried out Slate, his Onix hide cracked from gunfire. {With the fliers deployed, we've now got the advantage and the humans are starting to retrench, but they'll have reinforcements on the way and my group's taken some heavy casualties!}

{Damn it… What's taking the drilling team so long?!}

***

The people of Pewter could hear the battle – hell, they could see the battle, all its explosions and flying pokemon gathered like a black cloud. It was too soon, the bomb shelters weren't ready, they didn't know all the countermeasures, they had to get out of the city NOW-

And just a few hundred metres from the battle, the ground began to shake. And splinter, and tear…

The power of the Earthquake attack was legendary, but never on this scale, with this many pokemon, and never underground. Windows fled their frames, their shattered shards tearing through people in the dash to escape. Buildings groaned in protest but they still buckled, crashing down onto the people below and trapping their occupants under piles of stone. The street burst upwards, hurling people away from it, and underground cables and pipes lanced out like jutting bone. It took only seconds for everything within a hundred metre radius to be levelled, and before anyone could comprehend what had happened, the drilling team emerged, a whole host of diglett, dugtrio, sandshrew, sandslash and onix, and behind them came an army of pokemon.

The barricade had failed.

The group slit into two. One offshoot headed to join the battle; the larger one waited for Eon to arrive and tell them who to kill.

***

The soldiers had taken damage but the retrenching had been successful; now they just had to hold out until the reinforcements arrived. A constant stream of firepower kept the majority of the pokemon back, and beyond that is just a matter of reacting fast and trying not to be distracted when the man next to you was burnt down.

In this controlled chaos, the arrival of a few human strangers went unnoticed. It also went unnoticed that they weren't with the regiment. It went unnoticed in the noise and the panic, until it was far too late, that the eldest strangers, ones with red and blue hair, had started gunning down those around them – shooting them in the back. The commanding officer noticed, just seconds before Gary raised a makeshift axe and slew him. His second-in-command barely had time to react before Jeannette, never showing any emotion, smashed her foot into his face and drove the bones of his nose into his brain.

By the time the soldiers noticed they were under attack from the rear, the immediate chain of command was dead and they weren't just facing human enemies. They screamed in horror as they suddenly found themselves trapped between two groups of pokemon.

Then, very quickly, they stopped screaming.

{Defences are down here,} said Lash, refusing to pause, {but there'll be more humans heading to defend the city – we need to make sure they arrive too late to have a chance! _Destroy all of Pewter!_}

The pokemon roared in agreement. Gary just nodded mutely, looking at his dripping, red-stained axe. He'd never realised people contained so much blood.

He shook himself out of it. Yes, this was a nasty business but he had to do it. Freedom of a whole race was at stake here.

***

~Maximum damage in minimum time.~ Eon turned to her generals. ~ I want this city in rubble before the rest of the military scum get here. Scar, your group takes the business centre. Wildfire, suburbs – I want humans fleeing and clogging up the roads. Memory, Abandon and Blade will be dealing with military build-ups and specific targets in aerial bombardments. The remainder of you will join with Lash's team in random destruction of the rest – we leave the Gym until last. Now… ATTACK.~

And attack they did.

Scar stomped off, taking a team of tauros, onix and vulpix. The tauros were a recent recruitment, having been freed from the Rocket base. The attack was swift and brutal; many workers hadn't gotten out of their offices when the pokemon attacked. tauros and onix tore through the streets, literally, sending concrete and vehicles and parts of water pipe flying through the air and turning people into burger meat across the ground before they turned their attention to the buildings. Glittering towers of steel and glass, symbols of wealth and power, began to disintegrate. Scar and the vulpix backed them up with Flamethrower and Fire Blast, igniting whole buildings at a time and incinerating any soldiers that tried to stop the tauros. The district fell soon enough.

Wildfire commanded a whole host of fire pokemon, and other similarly destructive fighters. The suburbs had had time to evacuate, but not fully, so a lot of people went up in flames along with the buildings. The police and what little soldiers remained tried to hold them back, backed up by growlithe bred to be loyal, but they were outnumbered and blind loyalty was no match for ferocious hatred. Once more, many young trainers turned to their pokemon to defend them and were still unprepared to be torn apart, to discover _their _pokemon had been 'corrupted' by Eon.

Up above, the aerial swarm brought down buildings and obliterated troop movements with well-placed Whirlwinds and Double Edge attacks. Memory preferred Ice Beam, leaving soldiers frozen to the pavement.

And scattered about the city, smashing down buildings and killing any human that stood against them, gangs of pokemon were working to destroy everything their oppressors had made. Hundreds were freed and killed their masters. And every time, the most vicious attacks were always concentrated on the pokemarts, the unofficial gyms, the government residences – any official symbol of the League.

Pewter was burning and nothing could stop it.

***

Abandon tore towards a shopping centre and grinned as her Whirlwind ripped the roof away. Below, she saw Blade swoop down on a group of trainers and disembowel them.

{You know,} she said to the fearow, {we should have become partners a long time ago. Our little pack war didn't help anyone, but together like this-}

{I know,} said Blade. {My fault; I blamed your kind for what a human did to me. When I find that punk, I_ will_ eat his intestines.}

{I owe him too. He_ abandoned_ me. How about we find him and both kill him?}

{I like, I_- incoming_!}

They swerved to avoid a hurled chunk of concrete. There were a group of trainers below them; fighting trainers. They had a whole host of fighting pokemon defending them, and the two birds knew that they were in trouble. Most pokemon were allied to the rebellion but nearly the entire fighting element wanted the League to remain just so they could continue to fight. They didn't know if the fighting types had always been like this or if the humans had affected them, but it was a tragedy. And the pokemon themselves were threats.

This is when the pokeball-release crew entered: Shine and Primeape, tasked to lead a team in searching dead trainers for pokeballs. They also had to deal with situations like this.

{STOP!} cried out Primeape. {Why are you fighting against us? What do the trainers give you that is good enough for you to remain captive?}

A hitmonlee stepped forward. {They are our friends and mentors. They make us stronger, make us better fighters. We owe them! Without them, we'd be weaker-}

{You're already weak! You're slaves to rhetoric, to a chain of command, to what-}

{You want our trainers, you go through us.}

{Well,} said Shine, {that can be arranged. _PSYBEAM_!}

The fighting pokemon and their trainers were slaughtered.

***

The battle didn't last long. The soldiers and their tanks and their helicopters were facing enemies that could outrun them, that could fly with greater manoeuvrability than the best chopper, that could launch individual or combined attacks greater than mere shelling, that could confuse or poison or paralyse or teleport. They were being attacked from all sides and they couldn't receive any reinforcements from outside Pewter because the fleeing populace were swamping the roads.

Every unit within the regiment collapsed into a loose rabble of frightened men firing randomly at the shadows, trying to rely on cover and knowledge of the terrain when everything was being reduced to flaming rubble. Even the knowledge of the enemy was used against them, as time and again they ran into the humans allied to Eon and were killed before they realised they were even facing enemies.

The 2nd Kanto Regiment ceased to exist soon enough, but lasted longer than the pokemon trainers did. They were taken out fast, and with no mercy.

Everyone else in the city just tried to run.

***

Eon called all the pokemon over to the Pewter Gym. Behind her, Pewter's skyline had ceased to exist and the broken towers that remained burned like birthday candle. The ground underfoot was covered with glass and rubble and blood, but the celebrating mass of pokemon saw this as another symbol of victory.

~How many dead?~ she asked Lash quietly.

{I don't know for certain. Almost certainly hundreds. The humans came off much worse. Reinforcements have arrived but they're keeping their distance – they appear to be waiting for orders about to whether to bother going in.}

~I'll never be happy until our casualties are at zero,~ she said quietly. ~We'll return to base. But I want Rock and Ground pokemon to flatten the rubble, make this place a home for their type, and to erase any sign there was every a Pewter City. Have troops near to the human reinforcements, enough to discourage them from attacking. And get the bodies of the fallen; they deserve a funeral pyre in the centre of Pewter, a tribute to their victory.~

She looked at her scattered troops. ~VICTORY. This is the greatest achievement we have made so far. The humans think themselves the superior race on this Earth, smug in the assumption that their great cities can keep out the natural world, saying their vaunted guns and missiles can kill any threat, and believing they can control us with technology. They can't burrow or fly or swim or run or teleport on the same level as us, and so they turn to the technology to it for them and they think they are better than us for it. It has been ingrained in the minds of many a captured pokemon that this is true, that it makes humans strong.

~Well, we have faced one of their great cities and we have faced their mighty guns _and where are the humans of Pewter now?!_~

A great cheer went up and as it started to die down, she cried: ~Here is the Pewter City Gym, a construct of stone and concrete where pokemon were forced to battle pokemon so humans could win trinkets! This is the final symbol of oppression left standing, and I have purposefully left it standing for one reason – so its destruction can be witnessed in front of you all!~

With a gesture from Eon, the pokemon liberated at Pewter charged forward and began smashing the Gym walls down as one.

***

"It was unrealistic to expect that Eon's army would never enter a city," said Giovanni quietly.

"Oh, we knew she could _enter_ a city but this is- _Pewter no longer exists!_" Lance sounded like he was on the verge of breaking down. "A city of five hundred thousand people and an entire regiment placed in it, and Eon destroys it all. We have thousands upon thousands of survivors in need of homes and medical treatment and we can't _handle_ them all, or even work out how many are _dead_. We have panic on the streets of every major urban centre because nobody thinks we can protect them anymore. Reports of pokemon turning on trainers are rising, any attempts at contacting Eon are failing and for god's sake, we're dealing with someone who has openly said she wants a campaign of genocide _and we can't trust any one of our pokemon_! What the hell do we do?"

There was silence, for a while.

"We need to hit them back," said Surge, his voice hard and resolute. "We send troops in to drive them out of Pewter and Viridian Forest. We show that bitch and everyone in Kanto that we won't remain on the defensive. We hit them and we keep hitting them until they stand down and don't dare_ ever_ raise a hand to us again."


	12. Negotiation

Eon walked out of the camp silently.

Sneaked out, more accurately, although she didn't quite want to admit that. She knew if the pokemon saw her they'd want her to stop, to listen to them and give advice, to talk to them of what would come next. She wanted to sit by herself a while. There were no problems that needed her attention at the moment – not that she expected that to last long, but that just made getting through unnoticed all the more pressing.

She didn't stop until she was well out of sight. She found a patch of sun where some of the forest's trees had fallen down and stretched out on the warm grass. She closed her eyes and tried to doze.

It was rare she got the chance, and she was sure it would just become rarer as time went on. The other pokemon looked to her for guidance. Looked to her constantly. Wanted her opinion on everything. They're scared, she excused to herself. That's why it's like this. They're afraid. Nothing like this has been done before, and many of them had left the only life they'd known to come to her side and fight. She couldn't begrudge them some reassurance.

It will be different, she thought, when this is all over.

But it wasn't. Not yet.

She sighed, getting up. She should go back. Already she felt guilty for leaving. She'd have time to rest later. Now, now she should be planning and preparing. And reassuring. Some small thing was sure to arise and she knew they'd want her there for it even if they could handle it on their own. They weren't used to acting on their own yet. So many of them had spent most of their lives obeying a trainer's orders on things they knew by heart, was it any surprise they'd look for orders facing the unknown? It was another human legacy that would take time to fade.

And it would fade. She wasn't some human trainer. Whatever role she played, it was for their sake, not hers.

She'd barely gotten to the edge of the camp before a pidgeotto launched into the air and flew to her.

{Eon, there's a gengar here! He says he's Agatha's!}

~ Thank you, ~ Eon said quickly, trying not to seem shocked. ~ I will see him then. ~

She was directed to the gengar, who had not given a name. He'd been ushered into one of the rooms in the still-incomplete building. There was little practical point given his type, but it was better than leaving him where he'd appeared and at least this way the talk would be private.

Entering, she asked, ~ Why are you here? ~

{I'm acting as liaison to Agatha and the others of her group. They felt it might be more appropriate to send a pokemon rather than go by person.} The gengar sounded almost smug. Gengar often did.

~ What would her group be? The five elite? ~

{The Elite, the gym leaders of Kanto and Johto. Assorted others. They would very much like to meet with you.}

~ Why? ~ she asked, mental voice sounding suspicious.

{They've considered your stance and believe you are correct. They wish to negotiate.}

~ Ne...gotiate? ~ she repeated, the tip of her tail twitching.

{Agatha and the others sympathize with your cause. They agree.}

~ And they want to negotiate. ~ Eon was silent for several moments. ~ Where? Not here, I suppose. ~

{Lavender Town. It is small and unfortified, but far from your base of operations here. Neutral territory, or close enough.}

~ A human town. And I suppose I'm to come alone as well, to meet this group. ~

{You are, after all, a pokemon like myself,} said the gengar. {You're far stronger than any group of humans. We both know it would be folly for any of them to try to harm you under such circumstances. They only wish some degree of protection for themselves. You have killed a good number of people already, after all.}

~ I see your point, ~ she said, nodding. ~ I agree, then. When shall this meeting be? ~

{Tomorrow, noon.}

***

Eon teleported to the rooftop of a building in Lavender. The town had been emptied, and it was nearly silent. Not far from where she was she could see a cluster of humans standing in plain sight, near the center square of the town. She recognized some of them as the Kanto elite. Others were foreign, probably their Johto counterparts. She considered that she had expected them to stay apart longer than this.

She jumped down from the building and walked forward. ~ Attack, ~ she snapped.

"What are you doing!" screamed Bugsy. "We haven't -"

"Kill her!" Agatha yelled, her gengar phasing out of the ground and launching a shadow ball at Eon.

Eon jumped aside as a houndoom snarled and charged the gengar. A swarm of gastly and haunter began to appear, detaching from the shadows of the building and rising from the ground around the humans. Even as they did so, houndour and houndoom appeared, attacking the ghosts and fighting their way forward. Eon smashed a haunter appearing before her apart with a psychic.

~ Did you really think we would be so stupid? ~ she demanded, raging. ~ That we were so desperate for your support and approval? ~

Mewtwo appeared, sweeping one hand and dissipating the gastly between him and the humans. Another houndoom jumped for Agatha, only to be knocked away by her haunter's thunderbolt. More gastly arose around it and it was distracted by tearing at them, unable to make another attempt for the humans. Behind the ghosts, Giovanni glowered at Mewtwo.

Eon continued snarling at them. ~ Did you think that any pokemon could fail to notice a ghost type asking me to appear in Lavender of the ghosts? A ghost type when no ghost type has joined, when the ghosts have fought for their trainers? Did you think I would forget your hand in all this simply because you said you agreed? You are dead! You delay what is inevitable! We will crush you and your cities and the very memory of you! Nothing will be forgiven! ~ she screamed.

Agatha turned to Sabrina and her alakazam. "We need to withdraw." The two nodded in sync and the group flickered out as the psychics teleported them away.

It took only a few more minutes to finish off the remaining ghost types. The last few fleeing with the darks in pursuit, Mewtwo and Eon teleported into the radio tower.

Inside, Eon stared in bafflement at the multitude of buttons and equipment. The aura of ghosts was still present everywhere, from the centuries of death and internment and prayer and channelers. It was similar to the pokemon they'd just fought, yet duller, spread out to permeate everything, and faintly different.

~ I wonder why they help the humans, when the humans have desecrated this place, ~ mused Eon.

Mewtwo shrugged, tapping a few buttons. He seemed familiar with the equipment, which was humming along whatever preprogrammed tracks had been left for the day. ~ Ghosts are odd creatures. We don't even know if their origin is human or pokemon. In their natural state they're usually rather disassociated. Perhaps they aren't aware. Or perhaps they can't be upset without someone to tell them to be. They were probably obeying Agatha's pokemon rather than the humans directly. Ghost-types behave completely different after being trained. They act…well, very human. Ah, this should do it! ~ he said.

All over Kanto trainers paused as their radios were abruptly silenced. A moment later, Eon began to speak.

~ Humans of Kanto, I am Eon, and my army has just destroyed Pewter. There are no humans left alive. We will continue to we control all of Kanto and have destroyed all of you unless you do as I order.

~ All pokemon must be freed, whether they "belong" to a trainer or corporation. All pokeballs and the equipment to make them must be destroyed.

~ You have two days to do this before we continue the attack. If you attack us during this time, the deal is off and we continue leveling your cities. ~


	13. Counterstrike

The clean-up operation was progressing smoothly. Rock and ground pokemon had been bulldozing the Pewter rubble into a perfect habitat for their kind; it was already half done, and subterranean pokemon like the diglett had already set up in the old sewers and subways. It was their home now.

Nearby, the inhabitants of Viridian Forest lazed around, enjoying their freedom. Team Rocket had showed up as well and were happily sunbathing on the treetops.

"Yessssssterdaaaaaaaaay, all my troubles seemed so faaaaaaarrrrrr awwww-"

Jessie threw the suntan lotion at Meowth, knocking him over. "Enough! God, your singing should be banned by international law!"

"Nuffin wrong with my voice…"

{There damn well is!} said Arbok. {Sounds like a kangaskhan trying to go to the toilet through a sewn-up bum.}

"Lovely," grimaced James. "An ongoing revolution, and what do we have to show for it? You guys bickering."

"Hey, it's our god-given RIGHT to bicker!" said Jessie. "And breed like rabbits, and eat a lot, and-"

"Hang on," said Meowth. His voice had gone quiet. "Look over there."

Coming over the horizon were several dark black shapes, moving quickly and arranged in attack formation. The Rockets recognised them- they were military helicopters. The human military was going on the offensive now. And while the Rockets watched, they reached Pewter.

The rock pokemon looked up at the intruders and screamed as they were hit with napalm bombs, covering them, inextinguishable, burning burning BURNING!

They tore their way underground, trying to put the flames out. The helicopters left and headed for the forest.

"Napalm bombing…" Jessie looked down at the lush and very flammable forest and swallowed. "Shit..."

The group skidded down the trees and towards the ground, grabbing their clothes and weaponry. They were stationed here in case of an attack like this, and they would be damned if they'd fall in their duty. Pidgeys called out, warning the whole forest, and the pokemon within turned into a powerful fighting force. They were ready to take on any adversary, even the Legendaries themselves.

Then the first napalm bombs hit.

***

{EON!}

~What is it, Cinceon?~

{The humans have attacked Viridian Forest!}

~WHAT?!~ Eon's fur glowed as she switched towards her flareon form. ~We gave our ultimatum just yesterday, and after hearing it, they still attack us?! Fine. So be it. We gave them the chance and they spat at us, and so now they can feel our power.~

Cinceon nodded. {Shall we give the order for the break-out?}

The break-out was something they'd had planned since the beginning. They wanted to attack the pokemon labs of Oak, Ivy and Elm, freeing the captured pokemon there that were in storage. However, that would hurt pokemon, so instead they planned to instruct all the stored pokemon would attempt to break free in unison; while they were in strong cages, they wouldn't handle every pokemon trying to break loose ALL AT ONCE.

It was a smart plan, but unfortunately it wasn't put into effect this day.

Wildfire rushed in, out of breath. She was rattled, a rare occurance. "E-Eon… One of the Orange Islands, one inhabited solely by pokemon… The human navy is shelling it!"

Her eyes narrowed. ~I will deal with this personally. Excuse me.~

She teleported.

***

The forest was on fire. Pokemon screeched and fought to get away from the clinging flames. The drone of the helicopters cut through them like knives, and soldiers were dropped into the forest, where they began gunning down the pokemon.

Bludgeon lead the defensive. At his command, the soldiers were ambushed and torn apart by grass and bug types, while he lead an attack on the helicopters. He dodged a bullet, which shredded a nearby beedrill. He growled and dived forward in a Slash attack, tearing apart the vehicle. The others were being similarly dealt with.

The soldiers were falling quickly. Only one small group remained, and they quickly found themselves surrounded by Jessie, James and Meowth. A few seconds later and every last man had been gunned down.

James wiped his brow. "That's the last of them. I think. All we need to do now is stop the napalm bombing-"

One of the soldiers had survived. He aimed his rifle at James and fired, sending the youth jerking backwards, blood staining the grass.

Jessie screamed and blew the soldier's brains out, but it was too late.

***

At one point, Ash had visited this island, resting there for a while. It was a great place, and one of the few places where farfetch'd still lived in abundance. It hadn't joined Eon, mainly because it had no need; trainers rarely came here and rarer still captured pokemon from this island. While they believed her cause was right, they felt no need to personally get involved. Then three battleships had arrived and began shelling the place. The nearby water pokemon were fighting back, but when Eon arrived, she saw they were losing. They had used Surf to sink one of the ships, but the others were keeping the pokemon well back. Dead gyarados and wartortle lay in the water.

_Battleships, the one thing humans have that can better a pokemon in raw power. Except for Mewtwo, Legendaries… and me.  
_  
Eon attacked with Ice Beam, freezing a ship's left-side guns solid. She was standing on the hull of the sunken one, watching for any possible attack. When the other ship opened fire, she was ready to run, but realised too late that if the shells missed her they'd go through the hull and ignite the fuel-

It exploded and she went flying, barely protected by a psychic shield. She landed on the attacker and unleashed a Fire Blast, burning the crew and destroying the control room & captain. She fired off Thunder, destroying the guns. The ship was weaponless and at the mercy of the water pokemon. She teleported away and reappeared on the other ship-

Machine gun fire peppered her flank. She screeched. Normally, she'd have a barrier to defend herself, but she hadn't been ready, and she'd been hurt by the explosion already…

But she had to take the ship out. Lives were at stake. She had only one attack capable of destroying the vessel without leaving herself wide open- Fissure. But she was ON the boat, the shockwaves could kill her…

_I have no choice.  
_  
She glowed for a brief instant and the battleship was no more. And when the water pokemon showed up, Eon was nowhere to be found.

"…Kanto military forces have attacked Viridian Forest in unison with the Orange Islands navy assault on an unnamed, pokemon-inhabited island. The government is not backing down to Eon's demands and his striking back hard…"

"Turn the TV off, Misty."

She looked over at Brock and nodded. Ash sighed.

"I still can't believe all this. Destroying the League, wrecking Pewter City… Why?! Why does she brainwash them into doing this?!"

"I don't know," said Misty. "I don't know."

"Taking control of pokemon like that, making them attack us and claim this is a war for freedom… That's just wrong."

"But is she controlling them?" whispered Brock.

"What? Of course she-"

"Ash, no psychic pokemon can control that many pokemon at once. They are doing this out of their own free will."

"I just refuse to believe that. Damn it, that's just what Gary said, and where's he now? Hiding somewhere after he ran from the tournament!"

Brock sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. It'd been like this ever since the three of them had come to Saffron. Ash was shell-shocked from what had happened recently, as was Misty. And Brock had lost two brothers and a sister in that attack. And Flint, but Brock wasn't going to waste time mourning for that waste..

"Ash, that has no relevance to the subject. And the subject is: those pokemon aren't under mental control."

"So you believe pokemon willingly killed your family-"

"SHUT UP." Brock got up and jabbed his finger in Ash's face. "I hardly see why you are so damn high-and-mighty in this. You haven't lost ANYTHING because of this war! Well, I lost 3 of my siblings."

"And Flint," said Misty.

"I don't give a damn about him. The point is, those pokemon are NOT under Eon's control. If one being could do that, control thousands of pokemon and direct each one individually, I wouldn't have any family left because if something can do that it can make sure there are NO survivors and no casualties on their part. No, this attack was done by free-minded creatures. ACCEPT IT."

"I never will. I'll never accept that our friends could turn on us like that."

***

All the wounded and dying had been moved to Mt Moon. Chansey and other pokemon with medical knowledge tried to heal them, but in some cases…

Jessie sat next to James' sickbed, her face streaked with tears. "Is he going to make it?"

The blissey looked at him and his mangled side. {I'm not sure. It's a very serious case, the bullets have damaged some of his organs…} She stopped. {We'll try our best to save him. I swear.}

***

Eon landed with a thud in a Saffron back alley. Her fur was matted with blood, and her mind was confused. She'd teleported as soon as she'd fired off the Fissure attack, but the shockwaves had knocked her off course. She had no idea where she was and she was injured and weak. Not a desirable position.

"I'm just going out for a bit…"

A human walked into the alleyway and caught sight of her. His eyes widened in shock. She could kill him, but she didn't trust her own aim right now; if she missed, she'd be given away and then…

~HYPNOSIS.~

And she made him forget what she was, made him see her as just another pokemon. Glee grew in Ash's eyes.

"POKEBALL, GO!"

_NO!_

It hit her and sucked her in. To her credit, she put up a fight and nearly broke free, but she just wasn't strong enough to actually manage it. She was trapped in a void, now the slave of a human's whim. In short, she was in hell.


	14. Capture

Sorry, beloved if occasionally insane readers, for not updating this. I've been doing things and then settling in for Potterdammerung. I could have worked on this on the countdown to the 21st, except I was reading it Friday. Carpetleak, yo.

By the way: **The prophesy was actually referring to Dobby. Harry dies. Hagrid gets accio'd. There are unwitchhunts. Harry/Hermione turns out to be an incest pairing - "I thought it was obvious!" Jo opins. Lupin was gay for Sirius, who was also gay but not for Lupin, so Lupin commits suicide. Dumbledore is evil. We find out Harry was only interested in Ginny because of the Weasley's huge family and his desire to have lots of kids and name them after his dead friends and relatives. Ginny is okay with this. Voldemort is a shipper. Harry gets his hands on Draco's "wand". The houses finally unite and Slytherin is shown not to be evil, which, come on, is kind of obvious since Rowling only said it like a dozen times. (What, you really thought she was going for some lame black and white conflict where the kids are evil since age eleven? Did you ****_read_** **the interviews? Please.) The wand they need is actually inside the sword, and inside the wand is another sword. Harry is Jesus.**

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to remind everyone again that this story was written during the GSC era and does not include any third or fourth gen canon. And by written, I mean past tense, it's completed and this is a repost, which apparently needs repeating. I'd also like to remind you that _I cannot reply to anonymous comments unless you give an email_. It makes me very sad when people give me a long, well spelled review about how much I suck as a writer and I can't reply to thank them and ask them for specifics. I am not being sarcastic here. Please, sign in or give an email.

***

It's a familiar scene. A trainer is walking along one of the many dirt roads between one city and another, alone and far from help, oblivious to the fact the thick bushes could easily hide an ambusher or two.

Two. They wait on the right side, one male, one female. They have nothing against him in particular. Any trainer would do. He simply happens to be the one there, and to be an easy target.

They exchange a glance and, as one, jump out.

The trainer's eyes widen. "Te-"

They're not much given to speeches, especially not when they're under quota and in a hurry. The boy's hand is already holding their one pokeball, and he throws it before the trainer even has time to finish the phrase.

The arbok materializes and lunges for the trainer, snagging the belt in her jaws and ripping it off his waist with an easy, practiced motion. She rears up with the prize in her mouth -

- and slithers off into the underbrush, ignoring both sides. In seconds, she's gone.

The three humans stare at the place she disappeared for a moment, not understanding what happened. The Team Rocket boy is the first to speak.

"What the hell?"

***

There was a flash of wary familiarity as the walls of the pokeball closed about her for good – perhaps some things you never can forget. It was replaced almost immediately by a sensation like being tore apart and scattered, and she panicked, struggling madly and uselessly. And then abruptly she was together again, if still inside a pokeball. She forced herself to calm down. She was transferred, she guessed, her thoughts oddly clear now. That, she had no experience with. The boy must have had six pokemon with him at the time. She tried to remember if he'd had six pokemon, but the image swam in her memory as a blurry impression, half hallucinated. She wasn't even sure it was a boy.

Out of nowhere, she thought abruptly she'd be furious if it wasn't. If she'd just thought -

She stopped. She needed to deal with the problem. If she could get out, she might be able to simply bolt without meeting anyone. Unlikely, maybe, but the alternative was staying until she was discovered. Experimentally she tried to push her way out of the pokeball. She met no resistance. She met nothing at all.

Being inside a pokeball was familiar enough to her, but she'd never tried to get out. She wasn't even sure it could be done – she'd heard of it, but rarely, and never that it took skill. A few pokemon simply did. She'd always chalked it up to happening to be a defective ball, or an oddity in the pokemon. She'd have paid more attention if she hadn't assumed this would never happen again.

She was pulled into pieces again and put back together, this time managing without the panic. There was something sickly familiar about it. She pushed the thought out of her mind. Focus.

Eon tried to reach out of the pokeball, to see where she was. And she could after pushing through a dull resistance, feeling humans about, and other pokemon as well, another layer removed. There was a psychic fuzziness around from the concentration of the type in Saffron, helping support and amplify her weak efforts. She pulled back and considered. Machine healing after capture – she knew about that as well. It wasn't much, just enough to blunt the edge of it, give her back some power. For anything more, she'd need time, and outside a pokeball.

The healing was a convenience for their sake. It meant newly captured pokemon could be used immediately, preventing some embarrassments and avoiding any delay. That thought kept her from feeling any gratitude to them.

Still, it meant she was in a significantly better shape than before. She'd been lucky to confuse her captor at the time. Now, with more luck, she should have enough strength to erase his memory entirely and escape once he released her. She didn't want to risk trying from inside the pokeball.

It was a he, wasn't it? She pushed mental tendrils outside again. Yes, a boy. And -

Two friends, who were talking with him. They hadn't seen her yet, at least, but by now they'd know he caught something, and altering three sets of memories was a lot harder than one. But if they said anything...she'd barely hypnotized him, and it wasn't a reliable move in the best of times. At best, it'd take a few hours to wear off if left alone, and disappear immediately if anyone caused him to think about what happened. Or mentioned her.

Which, she realized, one just had.

There was a pause of a breath while the hypnosis cracked. Before it could fall aside she shoved through the pokeball's resistance a replacement.

_**There is no eon.**_

It held for seconds, then began to give way. She gathered all of the power they'd given and grabbed them, pushing their momentary thoughts aside and shouting into their place a simple order.

_**Leave. Walk out of the city.**_

***

She was conscious again sometime later, still inside the pokeball but now in new agony. She didn't know if the pain was mental exhaustion or physical damage – it was hard to tell inside, and she had no experience with this. She'd have to wait until she was released.

If she was released. Tentatively, she tried seeing what was outside again. Her first effort faded into nothing as it pushed against the pokeball walls. She focused more carefully and tried again, gaining a glimpse before a painful aftershock made her drop the image.

They were beyond Saffron, into the forest. They'd probably been walking several hours. If things had gone properly, they'd make up their own reasons for why once the command was satisfied and they stopped.

If things hadn't gone properly, they might not stop walking at all.

She could have checked, if she were outside the pokeball and in decent condition. As it was, she simply waited. She wasn't sure what she could do next anyway. She tried to focus her energy again, and just met with confirmation that she didn't have much of any to speak of by this point. Another attempt to alter their memories wasn't an option, not until she had rest. And that would require being out of the pokeball, which in turn would require that her first attempt at altering their memories worked. Worked, and held upon seeing her, and then held upon realizing she was obviously not anything normal, and then held as they tried to figure out what she was. She might as well expect her captor simply open the pokeball and walk away.

Eon hoped that she would at least be physically okay once released. If she simply ran immediately, she might be able to get clear before her catcher reacted, especially if he was confused for the first few vital seconds while realizing who she was. It would leave a loose end, and might not gain her more than a few hours, but a few hours should let her recover enough to return and deal with them.

She materialized suddenly, her hind legs giving out underneath her.

The children were confused. Legitimately confused, not the confused look that would directly proceed recognition.

"Odd looking espeon," the larger boy said, starting to lean toward her.

Espeon. She clung to the thought, forcing her form toward it. She'd been using psychic attacks while escaping, and then inside the pokeball, enough that her shape was largely espeon. Her tail forked, ears grew, and fur thinned. Espeon, espeon, espeon, she thought, focusing utterly on it.

"I don't see anything wrong," said the smaller boy. There was a pikachu sitting on his shoulder.

Then the girl said, "Oh, I see!"

Eon had time for an instant of panic before the girl continued, "Its fur is kind of blueish rather than purple. You're good, Brock."

The older boy seemed confused, but then nodded. "Just a trick of the light, I guess."

She was...safe?

She was safe.

A spasm shook her body suddenly, feeling like something was trying to claw its way out of her. She forced herself still a second later, but all eyes were back on her.

"Hey, are you hurt?"

Placing her two front paws neatly before her and trying to look as if she were sitting out of her own choice, she said primly, "Eon."

"That mean you're okay?"

"Eon," she repeated curtly, trying to sound as if the sharp cutoff of her answer was deliberate and not an attempt to stifle a yelp of pain. When this didn't seem to satisfy them she tried nodding her head as she struggled to remain perfectly still otherwise.

"Well, okay," said the smaller boy. He didn't sound quite convinced. "Well, I'm Ash, and I'm your trainer."

In a perfect world Eon would have been able to respond to that by crushing him into a small splatter.

Instead he continued obliviously, "This is Misty. She's a water trainer. And this is Brock, a pokemon breeder," he said, gesturing to first the girl and then the other boy. "And this is Pikachu," he finished.

"Eon," she said, attempting to convey how very little she was interested in this and how they should go away now and leave her along.

Instead, the pikachu cocked her head. {Don't you want to say anything?}

Eon blinked, taken aback. Her form started to waver as her control slipped, but she quickly focused again and forced the other types down again. The pikachu hadn't recognized her when she'd first appeared, or thought anything of it. She'd been rushed in her earlier command. The pokemon the children had probably had gotten a fringe affect. No hope of help there, then. Perhaps for the best, though – the pikachu would have had plenty of chance to make a move if she were kept out often. That she hadn't...perhaps it was for the best the pikachu didn't know her.

After a second, she shook her head once.

The pikachu gave her a curious look. The pokemon could probably still smell the blood on her.

The children looked somewhat disappointed, for their part. She wondered if they'd expected her to launch into some extended tale. She'd never liked being in the position of babbling to people who couldn't understand a word.

"Well, anyway," said the smaller boy. What had he said his name was? Eon supposed it didn't matter. "Why don't you meet our other pokemon?"

She felt panic returning. She was trapped and defenseless and surrounded. If any one of them realized – and if she made any attempt at escape now, they'd realize – and the more there were the more likely they'd realize – and if she waited for them to realize she'd never have any chance to escape – She could feel her body struggling to change into a stronger form, to brace for a hit she wouldn't survive anyway. She crushed it down.

They were all perfectly friendly, the pokemon of her enemies, and polite enough. She ignored their introductions and questions, acting as if she had no interest in them. None had names to give. Her fur bristled nervously, aware she was behaving a bit odd, but there wasn't anything she could do. She wouldn't even be able to communicate until she was strong enough to use telepathic speech again.

Finally, they moved off and left her. Gingerly, she laid down and watched them play like children as the humans made camp, trying not to shake.

It was quiet beyond the clearing. Many of the wild pokemon were clearing out after what had happened to Viridian Forest, either to hide or join outright. There were bands of pokemon still picking off trainers, but they were mostly in the more remote areas, where human escape or reinforcements would be impossible. Besides, had there been anyone around like that, the humans would have likely been dealt with already.

No outside help.

Just her, the humans, and their pokemon. And if the trained pokemon were loyal or traitors, she had no way of knowing now. She watched them play carelessly.

They'd just...accepted it, she thought. Thought nothing of her silence. It was so unremarkable, a new captured pokemon that refused to speak or play, with blood still in on her from battle. It would never be like this among humans. And that, too, was just accepted. Humans were humans, pokemon were pokemon. Pokemon would be caught snarling and raging, withdraw and refuse to talk for months, and it was simply how things were. They'd talk eventually, accept what happened, and the others would just wait for that rather than treating it as anything significant. They'd never wonder why it was that way. Never wonder why it wasn't that way for the humans.

She wondered what they'd tell her if she asked them why. Before this, there had been two answers. The first simply that humans were humans, and that pokemon were pokemon and that they were simply different and that was the way things were. And the second that could come after, when she'd spoken to the pokemon and asked what they hadn't wondered at before. That humans were humans, that pokemon were pokemon, that they weren't different, and that it shouldn't be that way.

There would be a third answer now. Anyone who asked that made their loyalties known, and the traitors were traitors, not idiots. They'd kill her without even knowing who she was, just that she was a danger to their masters. If she was lucky, Eon thought. There were worse fates. No, even if she was able, she wouldn't ask. Time enough to look for followers if she lived.

Cowardice, she thought. But bravery was harder when you could barely stand. It was one thing to fight and be killed. Another thing entirely to be trapped and in pain with safety just out of reach.

She shuddered, fur stiffening to sharp points for the space of an instant. She regained control quickly, before any of them noticed..

It didn't matter. Keeping herself in false espeon form was all she could manage at the moment, and it was draining whatever strength she had left. From the sun, she had several hours until dark. If they left her out, she'd be able to rest and escape then. If they didn't...if they didn't she wasn't sure what she would do.

The humans finished eating, and one of them began laying out bowls for the pokemon. She watched the others run over and wait as he poured out their food, then begin to gobble mindlessly. He approached her with another bowl.

"Aren't you hungry?"

She stood up slowly, trying not to shake, and he set the bowl on the ground near her before going back to his friends. Eon walked stiffly over to the food and took a bite. She wasn't hungry – there was a sort of emptiness where normal things like hunger and thirst were, with nothing but fatigue and exhaustion left, mingled with the agony from keeping herself in such a form. She ate out of the idea that she would need to eat, unaware of taste or any sense of fullness. When she'd finished she simply stepped away from the bowl, giving the boy unneeded space for when he collected them, and lay down again. The other pokemon were still out. She found that somewhat comforting. Perhaps the humans would leave them out for the night, after all.

Two of them, a chikorita and cyndaquil, were venturing toward her again, one leading, the other hanging back slightly.

{Hey,} the chikorita said. {Aren't you going to do anything? It's not like you get the chance to be out every day.}

Some of her power should have returned by now. Should have, if she had been able to rest, to take her true form. As it was, even something as simple as speech remained beyond her. She stared at the pokemon silently.

The cyndaquil fidgeted, appearing more and more nervous. {Maybe you shouldn't bother her.} He was looking at her with an expression Eon thought was almost respectful, even reverent. {I think she's old.}

The chikorita stared at Eon nervously, as if she thought she had done something wrong. When Eon remained silent, they seemed to take it as rebuke and left again, leaving her to herself once more.

Humans caught so many that true adults were rare even in the wild, and the ones left avoided the more traveled areas, the same place most trained pokemon were found. Unlikely a caught pokemon would have much contact with them in their own, likely short, time free, and after that, the only pokemon they'd know where teammates and opponents. Few chances to meet adults. And the elderly bordered on mythical, rare even in the more remote of places.

They wouldn't question anything more about her behavior, then, just assume it was all part of her being old, a remote elder to whom their childishness was a tolerated annoyance.

Old. She wondered if they even knew what they meant when they said that. It barely had meaning among trained pokemon. It was impossible to keep track of age when you spent days or weeks straight inside a pokeball, and more impossible to keep track of what age was supposed to mean when evolving far younger than you ever would on your own, or not at all.

It'd be different when this was over, she thought, and imagined for a moment telling of this to children who had grown up knowing not only parents but grandparents and uncles. And not like the houndoom pack of Firebringer's or the other few groups, living in fear on the remote edges, having to accept friends and family lost every few months to trainers, but ones who thought of what they had as expected, and as permanent rather than about to be snatched away from them at any moment at a human whim.

Pokemon who didn't simply have to accept the way the world was.

It was a nice dream, the idea of speaking to them. She imagined saying how once it had been only humans who had ever changed things, to a generation who would find it as impossible as the idea of it being only humans who could speak.

She cringed, the memory unexpected and painful like the touch of a live ember left hidden in the ashes. She'd never thought anything of it, back then.

Back then, she'd accepted far more than most pokemon.

***

Dusk came finally. As she'd thought, the pokemon would stay out for the night, herself included. As it darkened, they settled down to sleep. Most lay curled up in the area around the fire, some near enough for warmth, some far enough that only the dimmest light from it reached them. She took a place at the furtherest edge, beyond even that.

She relaxed her grip on her form. The sudden absence of pain was almost a shock itself and she simply lay there for untold moments. Slowly, sensation intruded, the lingering injuries that had been eclipsed by the pain, the fatigue and aftershocks of the strain.

Eon closed her eyes and slept.

She stands in a small meadow. It is beautiful, filled with hundreds of flowers, all different colors. The sun is bright and shining in the sky. It is a perfect place.

In front of her stands a very young eevee.

{Eevee} says Eon.

The eevee looks at her in confusion.

~ Eevee ~ she tries again.

{Yes?} asks the eevee

~ Eevee ~ says Eon. There is something terrible here. She understands she has to do something. Say something. ~ Eevee, you have to leave this place. ~

{Why?} asks the eevee.

~ You need to leave, ~ says Eon. She feels frantic. There isn't much time. The eevee has to leave before it's too late.

{I have to wait here,} says the eevee.

~ You have to leave. There isn't any time, you have to hurry, it's going to be too late. Please, you have to, ~ Eon begs. She is horribly certain that it is already over, that they have missed the chance, that even if she convinces the eevee it will be too late for them to leave. ~ Please there isn't any time! ~

{No! I have to wait here.}

~ You don't understand! You don't understand what will happen if you stay! Please, we have to leave now! ~

{I do understand,} says the eevee. {And I have to wait here.}

~ You don't! You have to leave! You have - ~

He's there and Eon twists and screams and jumps, and her legs no longer work and she is tangled in the thorns she didn't know the meadow flowers had, stuck fast and silent and the eevee leaves now, only the meadow is too big, and it's too late, the eevee doesn't leave, because it was there, right there leading all the way up to the door and she screams and she is mute and she is there again, in the lab, her body tearing apart.

She woke shaking.

It was dark and quiet. The pokemon were still. One of the humans shifted slightly in his sleep. The boy mumbled, "...o pik..." softly and then was quiet again.

She wondered what battle he dreamed of.

The rest had been enough to take the edge off her exhaustion. Enough of her power had returned. She was weak, still, but no longer desperate. She spread her mind out over the campsite. She could feel Saffron in the distance, and tugged some fragments of the stray energy that remained at the edges of her awareness, gathering it to help her task. Then, one by one, she reached into their minds and erased her presence. The pokemon were easiest. They hadn't even seen her, just an anonymous espeon. Even if she missed something, it wouldn't matter. A bit of confusion, but they weren't in any position to investigate.

The humans had already been meddled with, and took more careful effort. She reached into the girl's undreaming mind and brushed away sentences exchanged on her behalf, a flash of greed at the thought of an espeon. The elder boy's mind was also dreamless and calm. She removed the conversation easily, then spent time hunting down his consideration of her, his wonder if she had been trained and confusion at her behavior, his almost professional curiosity at what she would eat. From both she took her presence sitting in the corner for the afternoon, and let the rest stay as it was.

Then, tentatively, she reached for the last one. Despite her care she found herself stumbling immediately into the dream, and she quickly pushed her thoughts elsewhere, avoiding it. From the short moment she was left with broad impressions, standing above on a field, something below and before twisting and leaping, sending out attacks that covered every corner of the arena. She found her way to when he'd seen her, brushing the fragments of the hypnosis and leaving blankness. She picked out his short time on his pokedex, transferring her back, the memory of releasing her.

Done.

She hesitated a moment longer, lost in thought. She wondered what he'd dreamed, if it would have had the same focus, sweeping aside who and why in his zeal, so it was simply the battle, the challenge. She wondered what she'd have been. A vaporeon, jolteon, flareon, or perhaps a true espeon. She didn't wonder if he'd have loved her like that, strongly and secondly.

She'd thought he was a god.

And they'd handed him her life and let him choose her destiny.

She focused once more, and teleported away.

***

She appeared by the edge of camp, relieved to see things were calm. Many of the pokemon were out, but only the nocturnal ones she'd see normally.

She started to make her way through, using her psychic ability to avoid any pokemon she sensed nearing her. Eon didn't feel ready to meet with them. She'd rest now, and find out if anything had happened in her absence from Mewtwo in the morning.

"Back, then? You look dead on your feet."

Eon snapped her head toward the sound. The human was there, as usual feeling as if there was no one standing in the place, expression blank and inoffensive.

{I trust you didn't try to start a panic in my absence,} Eon said, not even clear if she meant it sarcastically. The teleport had left her dizzy and she was far too tired to deal with anything more.

"Over something so minor? I imagine your current state would be more upsetting than your short absence." She was talking clearly but her voice was quiet, not enough to alert anyone further off. "They were happy to assume you were busy with something, and would be back soon. Which I suppose was true in its way."

~ Yes. ~

Ice barred long, sharp teeth in an expression closer to a snarl than smile. "Well then. I'll leave you be. You'll need to be ready to deal with things as soon as possible."


	15. Death and Liberty

Eon sat down and looked over at Mewtwo. ~What's happened while I've been away?~

~The Leagues of these nations have ordered trainers to bring their pokemon into special facilities. They then are made "unable to be controlled by Eon and her terrorists". Behind the propaganda, we've learnt they're implanting hypnotic suggestions and special technology into pokemon brains, making them obedient, passive and unable to have free thought. An idea put forward by Elite Master Agatha. The technology is Team Rocket's; it seems the Rockets are co-operating with the governments to avert mutual destruction.~

Eon's lips curled back into a snarl. She had spent a mere day with a trainer, and that had been enough to see how thoroughly his pokemon had been brainwashed. But even then, there was the slight possibility that trained pokemon could realise the truth and rebel. But if their ability to think was taken away from them, then they'd be nothing but machines. She'd thought the League had sunken as low as it could, and then they went and tried to make them incapable of thought....

She took in a deep breath; her fur was growing red and starting to steam as the fire element within her began to rage. ~ We have to stop this. Tear these facilities apart. Kill those responsible.~

~We're planning how. It's difficult; they're well-guarded and the pokemon in there would be at risk. And then there'd be the controlled pokemon...~ He sighed mournfully. ~We have several liberated pokemon who have had this done to them. They want to go back into their pokeballs. I-it's quite sad, really... I don't even know if it's possible to reverse the process....~ He shook his head, trying to clear it. ~And, of course, we have those wounded in the last two human attacks. There are quite a lot of serious cases, I'm afraid and, er, we're running out of places to put the... erm... bodies.~

***

Mt Moon was thronged with the wounded, the dying and the medical pokemon, flitting around like little comets. It wasn't going too well; the navy's shelling had blown whole limbs off tropical pokemon, and the napalm was like nothing the chansey and blissey had ever dealt with before. Every available body with medical training was helping out; even Jessie had been pushed into service. She did her job, but couldn't help but feel frustrated; there was only one patient she really wanted to focus on and that was James.

His head was lolling to the side, its eyes open and his face gaunt. His left arm hang limply at the side of the stretcher, looking for all the world like a badly-cut piece of salami. He'd shown no indication that he was aware of where he was.

The chansey had explained he WAS alive, but was in shock, unable to move or speak. But he looked dead, and they had to struggle to even hear him breathe.

Jessie once more wiped his brow and moistened his eyes and changed his drip and bladder bag. She sat down next to him and looked over at weezing; he shook his head. No change. She brushed his hair with her hand and began singing softly.

"The last she ever saw of him/carried away by a moonlight shadow..." He showed no sign of hearing her, but she continued anyway. "The trees that whispered in the evening/carried away by a moonlight shadow/sing a song that softens when breathing/carried away by a moonlight shadow/all she saw was the silhouette of a...gun..." She broke off and struggled not to cry. "Damn it all..."

_Jessie?_

Don't go... I'm scared, I can't feel anything and it's cold and I-I'm scared... God, oh God...  


***

Eon was furious. She'd seen the wounded, and god there'd been so many... And she'd thought of those poor souls having their minds broken and warped, so enslaved they couldn't THINK without the permission of their bastard slave-masters. She thought of her recent experience, and how so many other pokemon were similarly trapped in storage, and she couldn't stand it.

The command for the Breakout wasn't meant to be sent for another three days, but now was as good as any.

Her eyes glowed as she built up for the psychic message. ~Hear me, pokemon in the storage of the pokemon labs in Pallet, New Bark and Valencia Island. I am Eon. Too long have you been enslaved. Far too long. And it's time for this to end. Pokemon were never meant to bow to the human race. But they try to control us anyway. They are even trying to stop us from THINKING FOR OURSELVES! They plan to destroy your identities, use their technology to alter your very minds to their whims! This ends now. Together, you can break out of the labs you are trapped in. Do it. FREE YOURSELVES.~

***

Oak, Ivy and Elm had come into their labs that day, and found the pokemon glaring at them. They though nothing of it and went to work.

As Oak began, however, the phone rang. Frowning, he picked it up-

"Gary! How nice of you to call-"  
"_Granddad, you have to get outta there_."  
"What?"  
"_LISTEN! The pokemon in your lab are gonna try and break out; when they do, they WILL tear Pallet apart. You have to get out._"  
"How do you know all-"  
"_TRUST ME! PLEASE!_"

Oak slowly hung up the phone and tried to stop his hand shaking. Gary had sounded afraid. This was no joke-

And then he heard a small thudding noise. And then again, but joined by others. And again and again, growing and growing...

The pokemon were-

"-banging on their cages, miss!" cried out one of Ivy's aids. She growled.

"Well, stop them! Use the tranquillisers already-"  
"There isn't enough! It's not just a small group doing it, it's-"

"-all of them," muttered Elm. "But how..."  
In all the labs across the nations, the greatest minds in the League cowered under the relentless, never-ending pounding.

THUD

THUD

THUD

***

James had been moved, so he could see something other than the poor burnt onix near him. He wished he didn't have to look at the dying, it kept reminding him of his position. He could feel his pokemon on top of him, sleeping, keeping him company. But he longed to be able to talk to someone.

Then he saw her.

He had no idea who she was; she was just some goth with messy hair and some symbol on a silver necklace (an Ahnk?). But how had she got in here? Why? She just seemed to walking around, looking at the pokemon... Another human who'd joined Eon, placed on medic duty?

After a few minutes, she walked over to him, sat down on the floor and looked at him good-naturedly.

"Hi."  
To his surprise, he heard his voice; "Who are you?"  
She smiled. "Just a friend." She looked at his arm with concern. "What happened?"  
"The Viridian Forest battle... got shot..."  
She looked at him oddly. "Why, exactly? You're a human, why did you join the pokemon revolution? You've lost your arm, for Christ's sake, and they aren't even your species."  
"I...could have stayed on the human side. But I can't, because I know we were wrong all along. I know what it feels like to be controlled and forced to do, to be made to be what others wanted you to be." He sighed. "I couldn't know about this whole thing and NOT join on the side of freedom."  
She smiled. "Heh; you really believe it, doncha? You believe in freedom enough to get blown up and still want to keep fighting." She waved her hand around the room. "Everyone I've met here feels the same too, and that's rare in these cases. Still rather cool to find people this idealistic. I've seen so many of these situations, so many rooms filled with people wounded in battle, but seeing such idealism of sorts is rare."  
"Who are you?"  
She looked right into his eyes and said, "I think you know."  
James paled. "NO! I'm not ready! I-I... yeah, I know who you are."

***

THUD  
THUD  
THUD

Oak looked towards the cages, and mulled over what Gary had said. He looked into the eyes of the maddened pokemon and thought hard about all he'd done, and his ideals and goals.

He went over the cage of a cubone and opened it. The pokemon looked up at him in shock, and smiled before running outside. The pokemon began to stop pounding. Oak dashed from cage to cage, freeing the pokemon within; they passed by him with a grunt and an occasional smile, and would sometimes tear open other cages so the job would get done quicker.

And they tore through his lab and out into the outside world and ran. There was some damage done to Pallet, but all unintentional and of no consequence. The professor had let them out and they viewed him with respect.

***

"I thought... I'd have some extra time... I'm not ready to go yet."  
Death smiled bemusedly. "James, James, James... you're not dying yet. You might not die today at all. Y'see, I was passing through, doing my job, and, well, I though you and some of the others could do with some company." She paused, and turned towards the onix. "Excuse me."  
James heard muffled voices, and the beating of mighty wings. She turned back to him.

"Nice guy..." She looked at James with concern. "Oh no... I'm sorry."  
He was going to ask her what she meant when pain shot through him and he found it hard to breathe...

"We're losing him!"  
"James?" Jessie looked over and saw the commotion. "JAMES!"

***

The pokemon growled and snarled as Ivy and her aids began to tranquillise & shock them. Little devices in the walls shot out pseudo-thunderbolts, irritating and in some cases hurting the pokemon.

"Now settle down!" she yelled. "Or I'll up the voltage!"  
One of the pokemon, a large blastoise, sneered at her and fired off a hydro pump. The cage's glass wall shattered. It was FREE...

"BLAAAAAAAST!"

More pokemon were breaking free, and turning on the cages next to them and tearing those open. Ivy gasped in fear and began to run, her aides screaming and trying to keep up. The blastoise fired off one shot and an aide went down, her spine broken. Ivy ran through the lab (she could hear the walls breaking down), outside (she could hear the lab being torn apart), down the steps (her aides screamed), towards her motorboat-

And she realised how stupid it was to run to a pokemon-filled ocean to get away from pokemon when Lash whipped out of the ocean and bit her in two.

***

"Thundershock on the count of three! 1...2...3!"  
James jerked and collapsed.  
"1...2...3!"

Jessie watched, tears streaming down her face as James was shocked again and again by the chansey's. His heart monitor was droning, a flat line mocking her and everything she'd gone through with him.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

B-BEEEP

B-BEEEP

"He's alive!"  
"Let's keep him that way! Switch to softboil!"

***

THUD  
THUD

KER-ASH!

Elm had locked his lab doors and was huddling under the table. He could hear the cages being smashed up, and he knew if they found him, he'd die. He heard the wall being broken down and a multitude of feet stomped around in his field of vision. There was more crashing and snarling; the pokemon were tearing his lab apart, his LIFE'S WORK...

The computer and notes on the table dropped to the floor, sliced into pieces, and a demon's claw reached for him. Blood stained the floor.

***

He felt like he was drowning. Breathing was a struggle and he felt like he was submerged in wool at times, in ice at others. He could see Death, winking in and out of his vision. He couldn't see her expression... Jessie cut into view, crying...

_Jessie... My love..._

He fought, trying to stop drowning, to return to life. He saw Death one last time, winking at him...

"Gu-HUH!"  
He sucked air in desperately, fighting to stay conscious. Jessie sobbed again and grabbed hold of him.

"Oh god, I thought you were dead, I thought you... g-g-..."  
They held on for a long time.

***

And outside, all over Mt Moon, the escaped pokemon came, cheering as they went.


	16. Relations

Another chapter.

But Farla, you cry! Did you not notice how Pokemon Revolution is not the top option in your poll? How can you have a poll and then cruelly disregard our will with the first update? Do you not realize this will make us hate and shun you and that we would totally mail you letterbombs if we only knew your address?

To which I say - Seriously, how is Ice winning the poll?

More seriously, I love you all and am sorry, but Ice is harder to write and also, it just updated last month, while this has been languishing for several months. (And okay, Reality's been languishing for several more months. I'm working on it!) And I need to finish posting this so people will know what to be mad at me about.

Anyway...this chapter has Ice _in _it, so it is _like_ I am following your will despite how I am not. A version of her, anyway. Kind of.

***

The trainer this time is about sixteen or seventeen. He's no elite, but he's not many rungs below either. For the most part, his pokemon actually fought. Only two walked off, and none joined the attackers, but it doesn't matter, not against the twenty or thirty pokemon that make up the group.

He's still got one pokeball, a young, low level pokemon. It's far too weak to be able to fight on equal terms with even one of them, but it's better than nothing. He can still use it.

He doesn't hesitate. He throws the pokeball so it opens in the middle of the attacker's group.

"Shellder, selfdestruct!"

It gives him a good lead, but they catch up before long.

***

~ Eon wants you. ~

"Isn't Wildfire usually drafted for this?"

~ She started crying. What the hell did you do to her, anyway? ~ Mewtwo said, moving closer. She was sitting by the edge of a flock of fearow that were clustered tightly together, heads down. One pulled its head up sharply, beak red with a bloody strip dangling in its mouth.

"She's upset about things that happened," Ice dismissed. "Not everything is my fault. Really, shouldn't these things be obvious? Does she really seem particularly lucid to you?"

~ She started crying when your name was mentioned. ~ Mewtwo said coldly.

"She tends to believe everything is my fault." A fearow near her was hissing. If there were words, they were unintelligible, perhaps a heavy dialect. "She isn't able to consider it might be her fault, so she's going to avoid me in case I might mention that." The fearow shifted slightly, exposing something raw and crimson.

~ That's not a pokemon. ~ Mewtwo's voice was firm, as if he was trying to make it so by deciding it.

"No, it's human." The hissing fearow's neck twisted away from the body and it snapped its beak a half inch away from her face. "Yes, I'm still listening. No, I shouldn't have to point that out." She reached out to stroke the back of its head, still looking at Mewtwo as if it wasn't there. The fearow's head dropped again, digging its beak into the body. "No, they haven't been doing this to the pokemon here at some other point."

~ I didn't ask that. ~

"And now you can avoid asking three questions leading up to it. Aren't I considerate? To these fearow, this is a delicacy. The rest of the time, they're eating your synthetics."

~ I'd...never heard that about fearow. ~

"Not fearow. _These_ fearow." Ice sounded irritated, as if her wording should have avoided the question.

~ I don't want to know more, do I? ~

"Why? It wasn't pokemon that died." She shrugged sharply, stood. "Since you know, why not just say what it is Eon wants? It'll save everyone time."

~ I think she might want to give orders herself. ~

"Don't be ridiculous," Ice dismissed. "Eon doesn't want to deal with me. It's something you're involved with anyway, aren't you?"

~ There's another attack being planned. Also, you know about the chips?"

"You know about how I said, is this all because it's really troublesome go back and all? Because it's really troublesome to go back and all, especially close together."

~ I didn't ask for that much, and I really doubt you got caught just going in the first time. ~

"Going in, no. But it's polite to talk to people when you're visiting nearby, isn't it?"

Mewtwo processed this. ~ So they're forewarned. Wonderful. Did you do that just to cause trouble? ~

"Don't be ridiculous," Ice said again. She waved a hand dismissively. "If I didn't do that, how would I find out about the data you want now, which is not a project I know about? Do you have any idea how much longer it takes to find this out just by harming people? _Especially_ because I then have to go kill even more so it's not obvious what you wanted, and space them out properly so they're not distinguishable from the first set, which takes even longer."

~ That last part isn't necessary. ~

Ice gave him a look suggesting he was be unusually stupid. "So as I said, troublesome. Even if I'm on good terms with them, they're largely insane and prone to trying to kill me if I'm around regularly."

~ Have you considered that's not insanity? ~

***

{I agree,} Shine said. He continued, {They deserved a grace period, nothing more. There's another lab in the area where the breakout failed, and we need to liberate the pokemon there.}

Eon nodded. ~ We need to take the whole area at once. If we simply attack the lab, the town will have advance warning, to fortify or escape. Running to Viridian is fine, but I don't want them getting to Cinnabar. ~ She cast her eyes over the room. ~ We'll attack both targets simultaneously to avoid this. ~ She scanned it again, growing annoyed, then looked for Wildfire instead. ~ Our forces are great enough that there will be no problem splitting them. ~ Wildfire was sitting near the corner. Eon focused, and made out Ice standing against the wall further back. There. ~ The main force will attack the town, while the others teleport to the lab. Ice - ~

"Hm?"

~ You're to help with the lab. ~

"Sure."

~ I want it completely destroyed, ~ Eon said, watching Ice for any reaction.

"Sure," she said.

***

~ Gary, ~ said a voice in Gary's head.

He stopped in his tracks, looking around reflexively. The voice didn't sound like Eon's or Mewtwo's, the only ones he'd heard so far. "Who-?"

~ I'm Shine. You don't have to talk out loud, you know. ~

"Sorry," Gary said automatically, then winced. _So why are you contacting me?_ he thought.

~ We've decided to attack, ~ the voice said, sounding apologetic. ~ But you have time to contact them. ~

"I - but -" He...was this some kind of trap? "Why are you telling me? I thought..."

~ You're our ally, aren't you? We need the area, not the people. There's another lab nearby... I don't bear any grudge toward the people there, and anyone who leaves rather than fights means less casualties on both sides. ~

_Thanks_, Gary thought, feeling a deep sense of relief.

~ Of course. ~ The voice vanished.

***

"But-"

"They're coming," Oak said. "If they're not on their way now, they will be before the end of the day."

"What about everyone else? The rest of the town?"

"Tell everyone you know - I am, but after what happened in Viridian Forest, most are afraid to leave."

"But you're sure they will? After the last attack, I heard they took heavy losses-"

"They will. Either they have more than we thought, or they don't care. Listen, there isn't time. You've got a psychic pokemon, you should be able to teleport out."

"We've got to convince the rest first."

"You can try, but you can't wait or you'll be caught in the attack. Mr. Mime or no, you can't risk that. There are rumors eon can-"

"How can you say that? I won't abandon everyone else."

"I'm sorry," he said. "But that won't help them. Take anyone you can find who's willing to go, but don't wait for those who won't. You can't afford to. It's the only way any of us will survive this. I'm leaving as soon as I finish my calls."

***

{Any suggestions on how to get in, Ice?}

"I could just ask them to open up," she said.

Grifle bit back a growl of irritation as one of the other pokemon piped up, {Really?}

{No,} the arcanine snapped.

"Actually, I know three people here. I can get them to open the door and shut down the alarms if I just ask properly."

{We're not leaving anyone alive.}

"I know three people here," Ice repeated patiently. "I can get them to open the door and shut down the alarms if I just ask properly."

He growled softly. Grifle didn't think Eon wanted anyone left. He certainly didn't. Under normal circumstances it might have been tolerable, but here... Still, think of the living before the dead. He hated the idea, but it was more important to protect his side than get revenge.

{What if they realize?} asked a mankey. {Won't they be suspicious?}

"Really, not something to worry about."

"But what about-"

"Don't be stupid, Wildfire."

{What if they do realize?} Grifle said more firmly.

Ice said, "Does that really affect any of you? They're already on high alert." She looked annoyed, teeth flashing as she spoke.

That hadn't been what he'd meant at all. He suspected she understood that.

"Anything else?"

When no one spoke immediately, Ice headed out of cover and walked up to the main building. She ignored the security camera over the door and typed something on the keypad.

Alarms blared.

Ice didn't appear bothered by this. She turned to regard the video camera and waited. After about thirty seconds it began whirring as it focused on her, and she stopped covering her ears and waved at it.

The alarms cut off, and the camera's light went out.

Ice waited. A minute or so went by, and the door opened.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded a man, loudly enough to be easily heard by Grifle. From what he could see, the man was in his late thirties, wearing an open lab coat pulled over casual clothing.

"Hi, Jeph."

"I've just had to shut down the entire alarm system and reset it from ten minutes ago. We'd have noticed you were here in a couple of minutes! Or you could have, say, contacted someone. We have this thing called a phone, for example. You may have heard of it? Like the last time you did this?"

"This was faster."

"For _you_. Channon had to report a false alarm and-"

She slammed a knife into the side of his head. As the body slumped against the wall and slid down, she turned and gestured for the pokemon to move.

Grifle yelled {Go!} and the rest of the group ran forward, funneling through the doorway and then fanning out into the building.

The arcanine paused at the door and looked at Ice, feeling a deep unease over what had happened that he couldn't quite put in words. {You knew him,} he said.

"That's why it worked." She stepped over the body and headed inside, and all he could do was follow.

He made it to the security room long before the system finished rebooting, tearing apart the woman he found inside and then wreaking the place. There'd be no internal defenses this time, no reinforcements showing up.

He continued through the building with the others, tearing open cages and releasing the prisoners. Some joined the rampage; most simply fled.

Then he came to where they weren't in cages.

Most were dead. One in front of him wasn't, a young growlithe spread open on the table, skin pinned back neatly.

He stood there as if rooted in place for a short time.

Then he helped the ones that were still alive.

Then he burned everything to ashes.

He walked out barely aware of his surroundings, the taste of blood in his mouth making him sick.

"Um, Gifle," stammered Wildlife, running up to him. "Something - There's - I don't know what to, they -" She broke off entirely, biting into her lip.

He didn't react at first. Then after a moment he said, {What have you found?}

"There are, there's something really wrong, they're in cages I saw cages like that before but I don't - they're babies!" Grifle realized she was shaking badly. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

He didn't want to see another horror. He wouldn't let anyone else be exposed. He couldn't leave whatever it was to continue any longer. He said, {I want you to show me.}

She bolted down the hall and he broke into a run to keep up.

The room she led to stank of fear. Inside was row upon row of metal boxes. One had been torn open and he could see another growlithe puppy inside.

For a second he thought everything was okay. Then he realized that the growlithe was cowering in far back, trembling and staring at the two of them in horror.

The girl next to him had started crying.

{What is this? Do you know?}

"Iso - Isolation," she managed. "Isolation studies, they're raised in, they don't know what anyone else is, they don't understand - there isn't any way to fix them. You have to - but they're just- "

Grifle thought of how he'd felt a moment of pity for the man he'd seen open the door. The salt taste of blood was still in his mouth and now he watched another puppy, still physically intact, who they were here to rescue, cower and shudder in blind incomprehension.

{We can still take them back,} he said. {The psychics can teleport them out even if we can't move them ourselves. Maybe...there may be something they can do to help. I don't want any more death.}

"I'll go get them." She rushed off, looking relieved.

The arcanine looked at the room a last time and then headed out to continue making his way through the building.

Ten rooms down, he found a small bunch of scientists hiding. He burned them to cinders, the flames finally clearing the taste from his mouth.

***

Wildfire, meanwhile, found one of the teleport-using psychics with relative ease. She explained the situation quickly, feeling better now that there was a clear alternative. Even if there was decision later, it was out of her hands.

After she'd led the abra, Vanish, to the place, she realized that it might not have been the only room, and she ran to find Ice.

Ice was in one of the destroyed rooms. Most of the outer wall was missing, the upper levels above it had collapsed, and the ground covered littered with large chunks of debris. For some reason, Ice was digging through these.

"Hey!" Wildlife called. Ice didn't react. "You didn't run into any isolated pokemon, did you?"

"No," Ice said, tossing another chunk of wall off to the side. "They're just going to waste more time dealing with those now, you realize."

"Grifle was saying maybe they could help them."

"That's what I was referring to."

"I wasn't sure -"

"Your voice is very annoying. Fix that or go away."

"Fine! They were babies, you can't expect me to kill babies!"

"I don't expect you to manage simple tasks, no." She'd reached the floor of the room. "You wouldn't have done it on your own, and since this place uses growlithe and vulpix, you'd have gotten hysterical if anyone else had tried. And then I'd have heard explosions, so clearly no one did. If I cared about any of those things, I'd be elsewhere doing something about them, so clearly I don't care." She ripped up a section of the ground, exposing the bottom half of a stairway

"What's that?"

Ice jumped down.

Wildfire followed. "What's this?" she asked again. It was dark. Behind her, the stairs led up to nowhere.

"Basement level," Ice said, examining the heavy metal door in front of them. "Are you having problems with counting?"

"You don't have to be mean."

"You have to follow?" Blue flame flickered over her hand for a moment. Ignoring the powerless keypad, she dug her fingers into the metal until she'd passed the lock, then wrenched the door open.

The room beyond was black, with the faint impression of large things lurking within. Wildlife cupped her hands together and created a bright flame, lighting up the room.

Ice produced an irritated hiss, and Wildfire startled, the fire dimming down to almost nothing.

She'd gotten a good enough initial look. "Cloning?" she asked. Timidly, she increased it again, enough to just make out the shine on the glass closest to the door.

Ice smashed it. Fluid spewed out between the jagged edges, and she reached in, grabbed what was inside - a bird - and broke its neck, then dropped it on the ground without a glance and moved to the next.

Wildfire crouched on the wet floor, bringing the light closer to see what it was. Then she jumped up, almost falling backward, the fire flaring up again.

"Ice, that was a zapdos!"

"Mm, this one too," Ice said, snapping its neck and dropping it.

"Stop it!" The whole room was illuminated now, showing several rows of things floating in the center of glass tubes. Copy after copy of zapdos, moltres and articuno.

"These things are a mess," she said absently. "Most won't even survive a few minutes decanted." Snap.

"Stop it!"

"Why? Were you really hoping to watch it flail about trying to breathe when it doesn't have lungs for a couple minutes? And this one doesn't have skin. You want to watch them die this badly?" Snap.

"I - but they're not all like that, are they?"

Snap. "Mostly, it's the difference between minutes or hours." Snap. "It's not a good idea to show the main group defective legendaries." Snap.

"What does that mean?"

Snap. "You're not _that_ stupid." Snap.

"...why would they do this?"

Ice repeated herself.

After a minute, Wildfire said, "Are any of them - not defective?"

Ice paused a moment, the first time she'd given any reaction. Then she said absently, "The articuno on the far left should be," and smashed the next tube.

Wildfire hesitated a moment. Ice continued along.

Then she bolted toward the articuno and punched through the glass. The edges cut into her arm but she grabbed the pokemon inside and pulled it out, cradling it against her chest.

Then she ran.

***

{Ready...} Lash half-crooned, his voice a deep rumble underwater. Around him, various water pokemon shifted.

The town was a way inland from the ocean, but there was a lake at the southern edge of town. The lake fed into a river that ran down until it emptied into the sea. It was a simple matter for the pokemon to follow it back up, and a simpler matter to wait.

Under the surface, they stared upward, watching.

A flash of light lit the sky, followed by an echoing boom like a thunderclap. More followed, bursts of red or white or orange, soon melding together. A distant thin sound began to be audible, the sound of screams and panic after it filtered down through the layers of water. Still they waited.

At last Lash reared out of the water, towering over the fleeing humans who were barely feet away. And he attacked.

The patience and calm they'd had waiting vanished, and the pokemon blasted at humans a buildings alike with abandon. The humans had tried to level Pewter, to burn the Viridian Forest? They'd show them power, prove that pokemon were greater than humans and machines could ever be. They would destroy this place and leave nothing but blood and ash.

The pokemon advanced. In the distance, Lash could see smoke rising in the middle of the town as the other line moved forward. Before long, they'd meet up.

It was chaos. People ran in all directions, most running into one or the other line of pokemon in their haste to escape. Here and there, trainers tried to fight, only for their pokemon to either turn on them, or simply be overwhelmed by the numbers of their opponents.

One brave ten-year-old, seeing his pokemon were no use, ran up and hit Lash with a stick.

{You have a lot of guts, human,} said the huge water pokemon. {I wonder how they taste?} Lunging down, Lash swallowed him, then gagged, coughing him back up.

{See, this is why charizard are smarter then gyarados,} laughed Scar. {We know better then to eat humans.}

{Be quiet,} Lash growled sourly, throat sore. He hadn't realized humans were so bony. He started slithering up the hill toward Prof. Oak's lab, where some of the survivors had taken refuge. {And help me finish up the job.}

***

Mewtwo took another sip. ~ You really should try some, ~ he said. ~ Enjoy the victory celebration.~

"It's just poison."

~ If you want to take the most narrow-minded view. It's not like it really matters. ~

"It's a lot easier to kill you right now."

~ But you wouldn't, so there's no point in being constantly on guard. ~

She didn't answer.

~ You wouldn't, ~ he repeated half to himself.

"It's a depressant. Not that you can tell, but you take longer to respond."

~ Really. I don't feel depressed at all. ~

"And your responses grow steadily more inane."

~ Victory is victory, and a celebration is a celebration. We won, after all. ~

"How terribly impressive."

~ Oh? And what exactly have you been doing that's so much better. I notice I still don't have the data. ~

"It ruins the point of not being noticed to just come out and explain to the unobservant."

~ Being here at all isn't exactly unnoticed, nor, if I heard right, is going up and asking to be let in. ~

"Because I did that, he rebooted the system. There's no record I was there."

~ And you really believe no one will be suspicious?

"Things are going badly that I might be involved with, so Giovanni's probably decided I'm dead again so I can't be. Speaking of such idiots, why are you here like this?"

~ Undiplomatic even for you. ~

"It's accurate. You're unaware of what's going on. Again, I might add."

~ Threats and insults. Our conversations are always so charming. Are you wondering which of us would win a fight? ~

"Not wondering, no," Ice said. "At any rate, you're supposedly a full-range psychic, not just able to hit things about. Of course, you're supposedly intelligent too."

~ So I should already know the answer? ~

"More that you really should pay attention. Haven't you noticed yet?"

~ Enlighten me. ~

"Learn to pay attention."

~ How unsurprisingly unhelpful. ~

"When I explain, stupid things take it as invitation to explain their delusions about how it actually is. Then later when I'm right it's my fault I didn't spend time convincing them. This way is faster."

~ Besides your bad mood, is there any reason the rest of us shouldn't celebrate? ~

"I'm not in a bad mood."

~ Right. ~ Mewtwo reached for another brown bottle as Ice shifted to the right. His fingers didn't quite close around it and it fell, smashing on the ground and splattering where she'd been a moment before. ~ Damn. ~ He grabbed another one and took a gulp. ~ So why shouldn't we? ~

"Because things get worse. Because you won't always be on the offensive. Because this group is unstable enough as it is."

~ I imagine you've been helping a great deal with that, ~ Mewtwo said, but she was gone. He stared at the bottle in his hand and took another gulp.

Looking about, no one else seemed worried by the sorts of things she'd mentioned. Half the army seemed to be visible, and he knew there were other, smaller celebrations elsewhere. The humans were about and mingling with the pokemon, although they seemed two or three short. Might just be lost in the crowd.

Of course they were celebrating. Today had been another victory. They'd lost no one taking the lab, and Pallet had been little worse. With each attack, they became better at this, taking fewer casualties in the process. They'd revenged themselves for the attacks earlier, they'd freed more pokemon, they'd taken control of more of Kanto. Who wouldn't celebrate?

***

"Everything?" said Ash, his voice strangely calm and detached. He was staring straight ahead, his eyes unfocused but avoiding the television screen.

Eyes still firmly glued to the television, listening to an announcer babble about how everything would be fine, Misty replied: "That's what Daisy said. The survivors mostly ran to Viridian. Johto says that there are two many pokemon left around the Indigo Plateau, they're not going to try to reach us on their side. Some people are going to try to break through Mt Moon and get to Pewter, but the Viridian Forest is still standing…it doesn't look like they'll be able to get to Viridian City soon." She looked over at Ash. "Your mother wasn't in the lists of survivors, but almost no one is. Plenty of the people didn't sign up. And she did have Mimey. They're said to be still loyal, so she's probably fine. Maybe he teleported her out or something."

"And Gary?"

"No one knows. If this whole…if this whole thing wasn't happening, it'd probably be big news. His grandfather reported him as missing a few days ago."

Ash suddenly slammed his fist into the coffee table in front of him. "How did he know? How?" he demanded, his voice starting to break.

"Guys," said Brock, entering the room. "There's a bulletin at the pokecenter. All trainers in Cerulean have been ordered to bring in their pokemon to anti-terrorism facilities. To stop the pokemon from joining Eon. Or to find out if any of them have."

"How?" Misty asked, while Ash just stared at the wall. "Are they..."

"I don't know. No one knows, they're not saying anything more. Some trainers say they've already gone, and none of their pokemon were taken. They say they're not killing traitors or anything but..."

"If it stops something like this from happening again…" said Ash softly. "Pokemon can't kill people. It's wrong. If a pokemon is trying to do that, you have to stop them, right?"

"I- I guess," said Misty. "But what are they doing? How do they know if pokemon are... how can they say they're not doing anything to traitors if they're looking for them?"

"They aren't explaining."

"Maybe they're keeping it a secret so eon can't do anything," Ash said.

"But why can't they at least say that?"

"Doesn't matter much," said Brock. "It's not like we have a choice."

***

Pikachu poked her head out of Ash's backpack where she had been sleeping. The scent of fear, confusion and pain surrounded her, and she looked around nervously for the source. She was in a room with other trainers. Periodically a metal door opened and a trainer handed their pokeballs to another person in white, or the white person handed the pokeballs back to the trainer. The first few times the place beyond was mostly quiet, but on the last she heard what sounded like shouting or screaming.

Brock stepped up and was handed his pokeballs by the person. He set them down on the couch next to him, looking uneasy.

{Pikapi, what's going on?} she asked. {Where are we?}

Ash picked up Pikachu. "It's to stop pokemon from joining Eon," he said softly.

{What do you mean? H-how?}

Ash shrugged. "I don't know. They aren't killing the pokemon. And you don't need to worry. None of my pokemon do. If you're already loyal, it doesn't matter, after all." He set her back down and walked over to Misty.

Pikachu stared at him. Shaking slightly, she reached over and tapped Vulpix's pokeball.

{Vulpix, what happened?}

Vulpix stared toward her blankly.

Her fear growing, she repeated the question. Vulpix's fur smelled of fear, alcohol and blood.

{Vulpix? Vulpix, what happened? Did they say anything?}

Vulpix didn't react.

{Did they ask you things? About Eon?}

Vulpix raised her head and looked around, then jumped across to where Brock was sitting.

"Vulpix, what's the matter?" asked Brock. Vulpix turned to him.

{Pikachu is a traitor,} said Vulpix as if by rote.

"Pikachu is a traitor?" repeated Brock, shocked. He looked at Ash.

"Pikachu?" asked Ash, horrified. "You-you're a-"

{No! Something's wrong! Something's wrong, I just asked - I'm not, I didn't say anything - }

The white person opened the door. "Ash Ketchum," he said.

"If you're not a traitor you don't have anything to worry about," said Ash.

{Something's wrong!} Pikachu shouted. She was shaking. What had happened to Vulpix - what was going to be done to her?

Ash reached down to grab her.

She shocked him and bolted out of the room, into sunlight. By the time Ash got outside, she was gone.

When he returned and handed his pokeballs to the man, he was met with a glare.

"You really should have known better then to let your pokemon run around free," he said.

"Yeah," said Ash softly.

***

~ Any luck? ~

~ Quite a bit, actually, ~ Mewtwo told her. ~ More than I'd hoped for, anyway. It appears what's being shipped is one of their earliest versions. Most of the later ones contain notes pointing to flaws in it that are fixed in the next version. They seem to have deliberately added a few extra problems into it as well. Either he didn't want to release his best technology, or he thought it'd look suspicious for an ordinary gym leader to have such well-developed mind control chips ready on the wings. ~

~ That is lucky for us, ~ Eon said.

~ Also, while this isn't in the current chips, probably because there was a risk of someone noticing, he's planning to release a second version with a rather bad security bug. It would allow remote reprogramming. It's really a very good idea. ~ Mewtwo smiled.

She thought. ~ And he doesn't know we know? ~

~ So I'm told. ~

~ Then you know what to do. ~

***

"What do we do now?" Misty asked softly.

"Easy," snarled Ash. Misty and Brock flinched. Ever since Pikachu had run away, Ash's mood had worsened. "I'm joining the group attacking Mt Moon. This is wrong. Pokemon can't be allowed to get away with this."

***

Gary was about again, still feeling a bit hung over. It had seemed a good idea at the time, and the pokemon had been friendly enough. It was seeming like less of a good idea now.

He didn't want to miss whatever was happening, though. He still had the sense there was something going on he just wasn't getting. He could understand some of the pokemon enough to get answers from them, but that didn't help much when he couldn't work out the questions.

Right now, a group of houndoom had gathered nearby, between the trees. He was getting better at recognizing different pokemon as time went on. Before he'd come here, he'd thought he was good at that. His grandfather had taught him to notice the differences in pokemon, slightly longer legs, a notched ear, different muscle tone, enough to separate out one pokemon from a group and keep an eye on it if he stayed focused. Nothing like the kind of thing the pokemon here could do - funny, how he'd never really thought of it like that. They recognized each other with the same ease as he'd recognize different people.

One of the houndoom was easy to identify, small and with scars on her back. He'd seen her around a couple times, although he didn't recall her name. The others were larger. Firebringer, that was the pack leader. Several of the ones around her were probably from her group, they seemed familiar, like he'd seen them before. One of them he didn't recognize at all, which was a bit odd, as they weren't particularly common. Huh. Hadn't Ice had one of them? Maybe it was hers.

Firebringer seemed to be doing the bulk of the talking, not that he could make out anything at the distance. He wondered what this was about. Some sort of houndoom thing? What could that be, anyway? Curious, he headed closer. He doubted they'd mind him listening.

Gary was about there when he heard a low growl to his right. He turned and realized there was another houndoom crouched in the shadow of a high bush. It was huge, and its mouth was open in a snarl, showing all its teeth. A dark evolution.

For a moment, they stared at each other.

Then Gary took a step back.

Its head dipped fractionally for a split second, and he realized it was about to jump.

Then it was grabbed by one horn and slammed into the ground.

The houndoom struggled a moment, then went completely still, barely breathing.

"Uh...thanks, Ice," Gary said after a second. "Is the houndoom okay?"

"You threatened Fenris. He'll need time to calm down." She was still holding onto him, preventing the houndoom from moving.

"Sorry, I didn't notice him."

"You threatened him when you backed up. Don't do that."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Why not? It's the same fallacy you use." Her voice was flat and he couldn't tell if she was angry or not. She didn't seem much like the person he'd seen in the courtroom before. Or the thing he'd met before that, although he still wasn't sure why Wildfire had seemed sure that was her.

"I didn't mean to cause a problem," he said, instead of trying to figure out a way to reply. "I was just curious about why there were a bunch of houndoom talking. Hey, do you know?"

Four houndoom are talking together. It's a rather odd spectacle, and not just because of the rarity of houndoom. The second largest is explaining something to them.

"What's going on?" asked Gary. The third largest, Apocalypse, turns and growls at him before turning back.

"Firebringer is teaching them to destroy machines from a distance. She's explaining now and will then take them out for practice," said Ice.

Gary gulped and took a step back automatically, but then gathered his nerve and responded: "Why?"

Ice smiled slightly, and Gary shuddered. It looked like the smile on a gengar's face right before it ate a soul. "Humans are using small chips to control pokemon."

"You mean, like computer chips? What do they do?"

"They completely destroy rational thought. The pokemon will do exactly as their master orders. They are also programmed to react to certain keywords that other pokemon say: Eon, revolution, things like that. If another pokemon says a keyword, the chipped pokemon will immediately inform its master that the other is a traitor and try to kill the pokemon unless ordered not to by their master," said Ice calmly.

"B-but that's-"

"Wrong? Right and wrong are what a person thinks they are."

"But no trainer- alright, maybe some would but almost none would do something like that!"

"It's not like they know, or have a choice. You'll get to see that first hand."

"Excuse me?"

"Gary, you're going to be defending Mt Moon. A group of trainers will be attacking soon. And you'll be fighting people you know. Telling your grandfather is one thing, but when it comes to an actual attack, you had better not choke," she said, walking off.

"Wait, how do you know about that?" he called.


	17. Base Defence

"Okay, you can see him now."

Meowth walked into the medical area and made his way to James' sickbed; Jessie, Weezing et al were hanging around it.

"Hey guys!" he called out. "Have you done something with your arm? It looks... er..." He waved his paw in the air and tried to think of a word. "Not there," he finished lamely.

"Oh really?" sniped Jessie. "Wow, we never noticed!"

James chuckled and looked down at the bandaged stump where his left arm used to be. "It had to be amputated; it'd been too mangled in the fighting to save. I think they took a kidney as well, or something."

"Good ta see yer up 'n' about, Jimmy. We were worried."

"YOU were worried? I'm the one who's been made into the Fugitive!"

They talked, and relaxed, and laughed. For the first time in weeks, everything was all right.

***

"We were being spied on," said Wildfire. "Jeanette was on guard duty and noticed it."

~Why wasn't the spy noticed before?~

"Because he was good at his job," said Jeanette. She was being serious, rather than flippant. "They now know about our defences." She frowned. "I don't know how that helps them; a pitched battle would go in our favour, even if they knew our weak points. They could be planning to send in a strike team but how would that work? The caves here are full of zubat, they'd cut down the invaders in seconds!"

~Increase our defences,~ said Eon. ~I will NOT give the humans the satisfaction of cowering us in our own base! Dismissed.~

Jeanette and Wildfire left. Eon turned to a patch of shadow and said, ~So what is it?~

Ice strode out of the darkness. She looked around casually. "Very Spartan."

And it was. While some pokemon had decorated their rooms with moss, leaves, scent, drawings and shed skin, stamping their personality on it, Eon had left hers practically bare except for a few military maps and charts.. It was a reflection of Eon herself.

~What is it that was so urgent?~

Ice clicked her fingers, and a young articuno climbed out of the shadow. ~This.~

Eon gasped in horror. ~An articuno clone? The humans have Legendary DNA?!~

"So it appears. Interesting; they couldn't have got that from the birds themselves, so it must have come from dead remains. I've never heard of dead Legendaries."

~Yes, very little is known of them,~ muttered Eon. ~But this is a severe threat. What if they create more clones? Ones brainwashed into serving them? We'd be wiped out in a manner of weeks!~

"Not so," said Ice, sounding rather bored. "They are pokemon, powerful pokemon I grant you but they can be defeated. You and Mewtwo are stronger than them. Remember, when Mewtwo had his...episode, he easily sent hypnotic messages to Zapdos and Lugia, causing them to subconsciously create a storm for him. If he can do that, he can beat them in combat. Psychic and dark always have the advantage, Eon."

~...you have a point. But just imagine a flock of moltres. Just nine, maybe. Mewtwo couldn't stand against them. I couldn't stand against them. An army might, but the losses... This is a terrible threat.~

"I destroyed the lab, and the data with it." She paused to think. "Granted, they may have back-ups somewhere else."

~I'll have Nightflame search for it; send Fenris out as well. They are good trackers, they can find the information and destroy it. They CAN'T FAIL. The means of cloning Legendaries is a weapon that eclipses nuclear arms.~ She sighed and looked over at the young clone, which was pecking at a map. ~Is it...sentient?~

"Unconfirmed," she said (for Ice could never say "I don't know"). "It's still an infant, remember."

~Hmmm. We'd better just hope Articuno doesn't find out; Legendaries, with the exception of Lugia, are warlike by nature. They don't like each other; how would they react to the news that we have a clone of them?~

"The infant will not come to any harm, yet. It has a part in-"

~In the storm... I will LYNCH you if you say that again... Dismissed.~

Ice faded out of view, taking the articuno with her.

***

~WORK! IN THE NAME OF PACHBEL, WOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRK!~

Mewtwo turned away from his computer and relieved himself by smashing a few glass figurines of Giovanni's face (created for the very purpose of relieving stress). The research on the brainwashing chips cure was not going well. The microchips were complex, and encrypted with programs he'd never seen before. He had a few captured pokemon who'd been chipped, under heavy sedation to stop them from attacking him, but he still had no idea of how to cure it. But he had to find a way. Thousands were counting on him.

~I need a beer.~

***

Surge eyed his new recruits. They'd all had their pokemon officially cured of Eon's influence; Surge hadn't needed to bother, his raichu was too arrogant and greedy to join the pokemon revolution. But now he faced a group of thirty trainers, all heroes in the various Leagues. All expressed a desire to stop the rogue pokemon, especially those whose homes had been destroyed. He recognised some of them, such as young Ketchum. Surge noticed his pikachu was gone; well, he didn't need it. All the trainers had undergone a gruelling 3-day long training. They were tested physically and mentally, put in team exercises, obstacle courses, target practise, pokemon battles... The lot. Surge felt they should be trained longer, but the Kanto government wanted the strike team, codenamed Strike Trainers, ready as soon as possible for a Mt Moon attack, before the defences were changed too quickly.

Finally, the training was over and they were ready to receive their Badges; the symbol of a pokeball, with the Kanto, Johto and Orange Island flags on it. Ash took his, looking at it in awe.

"So this is it, eh?" said Ritchie. He'd signed up as well. "Off to battle tomorrow. Mt Moon, they tell us."

"Yeah," said Ash. "Then we can show them that they can't get away with this. It's wrong. And they will never win."

"So we hope-"

"So we KNOW. Evil like that can never win!" Ash's eyes burned with the fire of a believer.

"I've got Zippo- he's a charmeleon now-, Happy and Sparky ready. You?"

"Heracross, Totodile, Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil and Chikorita. I had others, but Eon's turned them against me. The bitch." He frowned. "It's odd, but Chikorita seems a lot quieter nowadays. She used to hug me every time I released her, but now... She must realise how serious this situation is."

"Where's Misty and Brock?"

"They didn't sign up. Misty wasn't strong enough for this and Brock... I don't know." Ash shook his head. "He's just staying away, seems to feel his pokemon are a bit odd. I don't know what he's talking about. Still, we can handle this. We will WIN."

***

Pikachu clambered through bracken and nettle, heading for her ultimate goal; the forest. The one with the pikachu tribe, the one that she'd nearly joined. Surely she could stay there, free and safe. She was hungry and patches of fur were missing. But she kept going, until she finally reached the forest.

And found it had been napalmed. The pikachu there had never stood a chance. Burnt corpses littered the ground, staring up with empty eye sockets.

"...no..."

She collapsed, utterly spent.

***

The ex-Rockets were now playing poker. Arbok was winning.

"...mumblemumble_cheater_mumblemumble..."

"Oh shut up Meowth!" snapped Jessie. "You were the one with 6 aces hidden behind your coin!"

Lash leaned against the wall nearby, making it crack slightly, and watched. {So, Cinceon, any news on the grapevine?}

{Oh yeah. Y'know Oak? I heard he let his pokemon free, and now he's in Europe as a refugee...}

{Smart move by him. Most humans here just run away to nearby cities... If they want to escape, why don't they just go to countries WITH NO POKEMON?!}

{Coz they're dumb?}

{Well, we knew that ANYWAY...}

Jeanette was perched on a ledge, watching the nearby rocks for any sign of movement. Other than the occasional rock/ground pokemon, there was nothing.

Then beedrill flew, looking casual, and said in slow, friendly tones, {There's a group of humans sneaking up on us. Look to your left.}

She looked over, squinted and saw, amongst the dull and dusty brown of the mountain, there was a slightly lighter shade of brown, moving up the mountain.

"So there is." She casually leaned on a piece of mountainside, activating a rigged alarm that sound throughout the mountain.

Jessie whipped out her bazooka. "Oh joy, it's killing and maiming time again..."

"I'll-"

"-do NOTHING, James. You can't use your gun properly with a whole arm missing. The rest of you; ready?"

{YEAH!}

Lash and Cinceon were already at the entrance of the cave, flanked by a group of arbok, ekans, charmander and mareep; all long-ranged pokemon. The plan was simple, according to Cinceon:

{We let them get a bit nearer, so we can aim better, and then wipe `em out.}  
Gary was there, axe ready and looking nervous. Arbok nodded to him.

{We can handle this.}

***

Ash was climbing up the mountain, Ritchie by his side. He had his pokeballs ready, and a Desert Eagle gun that he only just knew how to use. Their camouflaged uniforms seemed to be keeping them from being noticed so far...

Projectiles rained down on them, killing one of the team outright. The very ground they were climbing on broke into fragments and set them tumbling down ten feet.

"Pokeballs, go!"

Cyndaquil and Totodile came out, Flamethrower and Water Gun blazing away. Around him, other were doing the same and also using their guns. Ash smirked; the enemy may have got the drop on them, but they were fighting back.

{DAMN IT!} snarled Lash. {They're using brainwashed pokemon! Hold back, people; we have to knock `em out, NOT kill. The humans are fair game but leave the pokemon alive!}

{OK, I want a group to go down and engage them in direct combat,} said Cinceon. {We can't just pick them off from a distance now, we might kill the pokemon!}

"We're on it," said Meowth. "Just give the word."

{NOW!}

The Strike Trainers had a respite as the attack ceased. A quick count revealed one dead, two injured and four pokemon knocked out. Ash re-loaded his gun.

"What now?"

"Continue our advance," said Ritchie. "We have to get inside and plant the bombs, remember?"

"Yep. And- oh, crap. They're charging!"

Indeed they were. The brainwashed pokemon met that charge head on, and drove it to a standstill. It was an uneven fight; the rebels didn't want to hurt them, while the brainwashed ones wanted to KILL. Several rebels were being knocked out within seconds.

Nidoking growled as Cyndaquil bit onto his tail, and he slammed it down into the ground. The fire type was knocked out. {This is useless! I've got a captive here, but it's the only one we have so far!}

Gary was trapped in the middle of the fight and noticed one odd thing; "They're not attacking Jessie, Jeanette and me."

{Must be programmed to not hurt humans. Heyyyy...}

"That means WE can get to the trainers and blow `em away!" said Jessie. "Let's go!"

The three of them charged. The Strike Trainers were confused at the sight of humans and hesitated for a second; in that second, Jessie was able to gun down 2 trainers, Gary dashed out the brains of another and Jeanette was able to break another's neck. The survivors opened fire, but it was too late; Jeanette and Gary were too close and were able to move and disarm them, and Jessie just had more experience and a MUCH bigger gun.

Ash was horrified. Humans were fighting on the side of evil. HUMANS! And... there was... Gary...

He launched himself at his rival, knocking him to ground and punching him hard enough to break his nose. "BASTARD!"

Gary kicked Ash in the groin, getting him off, and flipped upright. "Ash."

"You-you've betrayed us all... You make me SICK!"

Gary dodged his punches and kicks, calling out "You're the one who always jabbered on about how pokemon were our friends and that, and now you turn on them?"

"Shut your filthy mouth!" Ash punched him the stomach, winding him. "You've betrayed your own SPECIES, joined with evil-"

Gary did a sweeping kick, knocking Ash to the floor. "Oh, GROW UP! Look around, twerp! Humans have been enslaving and abusing pokemon for decades, and now when they decide to stand up for themselves, they're evil? Wanting FREEDOM and RIGHTS is being evil? To think I ever considered you an equal..."

Ash got to his feet and glared at Gary. "Oh yeah? Your little terrorist friends wiped out Pallet, killing your own grandfather-"

"He's still alive, dickhead! I warned him in advance; he freed the pokemon himself! He escaped the country-"

"LYING SCUM!"

But Ash never got any further, because while the two of them had been fighting, onix and geodudes had tunnelled out of the mountain and into the battlefield, driving back the brainwashed pokemon and killing the majority of the Strike Trainers. As Ash watched, a geodude used Seismic Toss to kill off a trainer.

"ASH!" yelled Ritchie. "Forget the traitor; we have to retreat!"  
Ash snarled and recalled his pokemon; he couldn't reach Bulbasaur, but he couldn't go after him, his pokemon would be torn to pieces by the evil ones. The Strike Team left, leaving behind their unconscious pokemon and dead comrades.

{Oh look,} said Nidoking. {We won. What a surprise.}

Gary wiped the blood from his nose. "Yeah, no deaths on our side either. Any serious injuries?"

{On three pokemon. We've done well though; victory is ours! Hey, wasn't that Ash you were fighting?}

"Yeah. But he doesn't matter, if he ever did. C'mon, let's go."


End file.
